Never, AGAIN!
by SALADS
Summary: Cross has escaped to Vegas, leaving Allen Walker to deal with debts, drunk rapists, crazy companies trying to murder their own employees, famous popstars, popular guys, and a hot rich Japanese man with a gigantic trombone up his ass. :fEmALe allEn:
1. sTART All oVER

**OMG! Like, hi! I can't believe that this is my second story and its....published. I wanted to finish my other story first, you know, the one where Kanda Steals Lenalee's kidney (no that doesn't actually happen) before I published this one, but in the end, I just couldn't hold back my urges (lol) and I just had to post this one up. But oh well screw waiting -its out! So please read it! MWA! LOVE! ;)**

**WARNING WARNING WARNING!**

**FEMALE ALLEN ALERT! Yeah I know, I didn't post the warning in the summary, but there wasn't enough room so too bad. But please read it anyways I don't get why people think its so bad for Allen to be a female like really whatever he's allowed to have a sex change from time to time! And beside, there was a poll on my profile debating whether Allen should be a girl or not in this fic but in the end it was surprisingly a...TIE!!! Yeah I know it was a tie! Thats really weird!**

**Oh well whatever please read and remember to review cuz everybody wants a review!!! :DDDD**

* * *

~Never, AGAIN~

* * *

FEMALE ALLEN ALERT IF YOU DIDN'T READ THE STUFF AT THE TOP! DON'T BLAME ME AND SAY I DIDN't WARN YA!!! :D

**But really. Just read it anyway.**

_Hey Allen, my favorite bitch. _

_I have gone back to Vegas, where I can hang with the ladies and get some extra cash in my pockets at the Playboy casino. Don't you dare come looking for me. I need you to stay right where you are in order to pay up our 500,000 dollar debt. Work your tiny ass off, got it? Oh, and get another part time job while you're at it-you should have at least three by now, you slow arse. Screw the one at the café and get a damn job that pays more. And tell Miss Anita that I'm alright and won't be back for a while-if she starts to get all teary then grab a fucking box of Kleenex and throw it at her face. She needs to be a strong woman. Damn I'm feeling pretty drunk right now. When you read this I will probably be gone already so don't even bother getting mad, stupid kid. Never forget that I'm still your guardian. And oh-were going to be pretty damn rich by the time I leave Vegas and get back to that house!_

_Remember-what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas._

_From Cross Marian_

Allen Walker stared at the letter that she was holding in shock. She was still shaking, with the paper clutched in her gloved hands tightly.

Sure, her guardian had done billions of reckless things before-from messing with gangsters to feeding pot to dogs to hitting on not-even-so-hot teachers to kicking people randomly on the streets when he was drunk, but leaving suddenly to Las Vegas without even a goodbye?

"GOD HELP ME!"

The white haired girl dropped to the ground weakly on her knees as she clutched her head and pleaded hopelessly. She wasn't even using God's name in vain-at this moment, Allen knew that she needed help from the person she believed in the most, and that was Mr. Jesus Christy.

Burning with rage, the white haired girl picked up the letter from the ground and ripped it to shreds like a cat that needed a scratching post. She was DONE with this Cross Marian. As in, she would probably never talk to him again when he got back from Vegas. IF he ever got back from Vegas that is-he would probably lose so badly in the casinos and then not have any money left to get a plane ticket back home. That would have been perfect-then she'd never ever have to be harassed by that stupid red head who called himself her guardian again!

"Argghhhh!" Allen Walker leapt up from the floor and stomped on what was left of the poor letter. "What does he mean by pay up _our _debts?!" she cried out to herself as the words on the letter haunted her. "Who was the freaking man that spent five hundred bucks everyday on women and alcohol?!"Before the girl knew it, tears were pouring out of Allen's face like a river. Great. Awesome. Fantastic. Now she was crying-_crying. _Usually, she was the last one to get mad-she believed that solving problems without anger or violence was the way to go. But maybe that theory was wrong, because if Cross Marian had come home right at that moment, she swore that she would have set his damn goatee on fire.

Allen took a deep breath and lay down flat on the floor, feeling faint. She wanted to go back to sleep so badly right now and wake up again for everything to be a dream. But of course something so complicated like _sleep _was not even in her dictionary. Or at least only half the word was, since she only got five hours of it every night.

Allen wiped away a tear resting on her cheek with a gloved hand and sniffed. She obviously couldn't rest up right now-school was going to start in five minutes and she hadn't even gotten dressed yet. The first thing she had done when she had waken up was charge into the living room and wonder why Cross Marian hadn't interrupted her dreams like he usually did every morning with his loud, murderous laughs and noisy beer bottle throwing. And the reason was obviously in that letter he had left on the couch, the explanation written onto the back of the poster of a nude woman. It was clear that Cross Marian had been looking at porn magazines again, that perv. He couldn't even find a normal sheet of paper to write on with!

"Bastard." Allen mumbled under her breath as she got up from the floor and glanced around. Along with the letter, her guardian had also left a big pile of crap in the living room waiting for her to clean it up. There were broken beer bottles, ripped up bills, pages torn out from inappropriate magazines, cigarette butts, and dead hamsters lying all across the room.

The only thing that should have been there but was not was Timcampy, her Master's Chow Chow. In fact, Allen wished that the little puppy was there-even though that dog loved to bite people; it was still the cutest thing ever. But to her surprise, this morning, when she had found the letter, Timcampy was nowhere to be found, which meant that Cross had probably taken the puppy with him to the slots in Vegas, and it surprised Allen a lot. She didn't expect him to take Timcampy with him at all even though it was his dog-that bastard could of cared less if anything happened to Timcampy. But she guessed that she was wrong about it-Cross obviously still cared about that dog so he had taken him with him. Without Timcampy, the house seemed even emptier and even more silent. She was starting to miss the happy tail wagging puppy like hell already.

But that wasn't too important right now. Quickly, Allen got up from the floor and ran into her room. She went over to the closet and flung it open, pulling out whatever was hanging in there. Her closet was really messy anyways-if somebody had crawled in there they would have probably ended up in Narnia.

After she got dressed into jeans, a shirt, and a red hoodie, Allen sped over to the door, grabbed the keys hanging beside it and left the tiny house that used to be home to her and Cross. Well, it was still HER home, just not Cross's anymore. That old faggot was probably living at some expensive hotel in Vegas, adding more to the already huge debt.

"Oh my-you are up late today!"

Allen spun around as she raced down their street like a bee. Standing in the garden of another tiny house beside theirs with a hose in her hands was a middle-aged woman with curly black hair. She was wearing a lot of eyeliner and had an unsure expression on her face, as usual, as she watered her plants.

"Yeah, Miranda, I know- it's Cross's fault!

Allen replied to the woman with a yell as she raced down the street. That Cross! He could have at least set her alarm clock to seven forty-five if he wasn't going to wake her up today-but now it was true that he was just a heartless dude. And he wasn't going to be able to wake her up in a long, long, time.

"Well, make sure you lecture him about it!"

She heard Miranda call out cheerfully as she left the neighborhood like a race car. She tried to smile as she sprinted, but it came out bitterly. She wished she could lecture him-but then she would have to fly to a place called Las Vegas to kick his arse.

And even though she was really, really, pissed at him, she still hoped that her guardian would come back soon.

But only so she could throw the debts at his face.

* * *

"You're late."

Mr. Sokaro pointed out even though it was obvious that Allen had rushed into class panting for breath. The white haired girl lifted up her head at the teacher for her Socials Studies apologetically as she stood at the door. Her forehead was sweating and she felt like that she had just had gym class before she came to school running like a maniac.

"Sorry." Allen mumbled as she felt the gazes of thirty other students in the room staring at her. She was actually later than late. She had already missed twenty minutes of school. "But something came up."

Mr. Sokaro raised his eyebrows. "Sure." He said skeptically as he turned around to write something on the white board. "Well, take a seat. I don't want you wasting my class time, Miss Walker."

"Sorry."

Allen took a deep breath to relax her nerves as she walked towards the back of the room, where her seat was. She was still stunned about the whole Cross Marian escape-to-Vegas deal, and she didn't even care when people stared at her and muttered things about her hair when she walked past their seats. _Everybody _talked about her hair-it was like they didn't have their own lives to talk about and could only be losers by making fun of somebody's NATURALLY colored hair. It was hard to believe, but it was most definitely true. Most people didn't believe her when she told them that her hair was naturally white-or at least, now it was. When she was around 10 years old, she had brown hair, but after Mana, her old guardian, died, her hair slowly turned white as she lived with Cross. She guessed it was Cross's fault for making her pay for all the debts that she began to worry and turn old. But then, EVERYTHING was Cross's fault, wasn't it?

Allen sat down in her seat and rested her chin on the table, trying to concentrate on what Mr. Sokaro was saying. It wasn't working though-her mind was filled with thoughts of Cross Marian and his debts. She was beginning to wonder what the police would have done if she, instead of ripping the letter up, had called them and showed the letter as well as the debts to them. Oh hot dayum-then Cross Marian would probably be in a lot of trouble for child abuse. She tried to hold back an evil laugh as those delicious thoughts of Cross going to court entered her mind. That would be pretty sweet…..

"Hey."

A hiss interrupted Allen's deep thoughts. The British girl turned to her right and saw Alexis, a girl in her class, blowing a bubble with her mouth.

"What?" Allen blinked at her. She was not feeling well enough to deal with any more rude comments.

Alexis smirked as she popped the bubble. "I see that you failed again to comb your hair today. Why don't you try spitting into your hand and applying your saliva all over that white hair? I heard that it works for albinos."

Allen was in no mood to fight back. Instead, the white haired girl just turned her head back towards the teacher and sighed, surprising the Alexis girl. Half a freaking million dollars! Cross Marian owed that much! And it was all up to her to pay for it, with only three jobs. Maybe she DID need another job.

"She's not an albino!" A voice from behind Allen stated. "And if she were, then you'd probably be even _more _jealous, Alexis. It's like the only thing you can do well at."

Allen ignored her thoughts for a second and turned around behind her slowly. Staring back at her anxiously was an Asian girl with her hair in braids and giant glasses on her face.

"Thankyou, Lou Fa." Allen whispered. "I could use one less of an Alexis in my life."

The Asian girl pushed up her glasses, ignoring Alexis as she formed the word _bitch _with her mouth at the two of them.

"Allen, are you okay?" the girl behind her named Lou Fa asked worriedly, ignoring what she had just said. "You look like you could barf any minute."

Allen smiled weakly. "Ah, its coming up my throat alright."

"That's disgusting! But well, seriously. I've never seen you look so horrible. You were even late for school today-I mean, Allen Walker, late for school? And I'm actually Obama in disguise. What is up with you?"

Allen sighed, something that she usually didn't do very much.

"Allen!" Mr. Sokaro's voice rang out loud from in front of the class suddenly, causing the British girl to quickly spin around. He looked suspicious. "Give me an explanation on what I just said about the Renaissance."

Allen, without bothering to glance up at her teacher, placed a hand underneath her chin and looked bored. She didn't have the freaking time to worry about the freaking Renaissance right now! Cross Marian owed a debt of half a million dollars! That was probably enough money to build a tiny Renaissance town! "It's the time where the arts flourished and trade increased. More goods were being imported from the east and the main city for the Renaissance was Florence. That's basically all you said."

"Good enough." Mr. Sokaro grumbled as he turned back towards the board to write down notes. Allen knew that he wanted to catch her off guard for once-but everything was already in her mind. Even if she didn't listen at all, she still knew what that teacher would be talking about. And it made her feel sad that Mr. Sokaro wanted her to not be able to answer a question. Ah, but being smart had billions of positive points, didn't it?

With the teacher's back turned away from them, Allen whipped around to face Lou Fa behind her.

"So?" the Asian girl asked. "Tell me why you look like you ate a crow for breakfast."

Allen sighed for the fifth time that morning. "Actually, I didn't have breakfast." She corrected her friend, suddenly remembering how hungry she was. Stupid Cross, not waking her up-how could he forget that mealtimes were her most important times of the day? "But I'll tell you what happened. So basically um…errrr……." She glanced down at the desk. How was she supposed the put this? What was she supposed to tell her? She couldn't just say: Um yeah- well you see, my guardian wrote me a letter on the back page of a porn magazine saying that he was going to Vegas to hang in the casinos and get it on with the Playboy bunnies. But, now the police can't catch him because I ripped that letter in the heat of anger. And now I may have to get another job because he owes a debt of 500,000 dollars-which, by the way, was spent all on women and women. And more womanly stuff. With a trace of alcohol. So blame it.

(Love that song by the way)

Allen stared at her friend Lou Fa as she searched for the right words. All that crap above was what she wanted to blurt out, but she couldn't. "Um….well…"

"Spill already!"

"Yeah, well…." Allen looked at Lou Fa, who was starting to get impatient. "Well, I'll tell you the details later, but to make a long story short, uh, basically Cross left me for Vegas."

The Asian girl blinked back at her. "What?!" she echoed a bit too loudly. People sitting beside them turned their heads to stare, one of them including Alexis.

"Could you not disturb us please? Some of us actually find school important, albino's friend." The mean girl hissed, but Allen and Lou Fa barley noticed her.

"Wait, let me get this straight." Lou Fa pushed up her glasses. "Your guardian went to Las Vegas?"

Allen nodded slowly. She didn't mention anything about the 500,000 dollar debt.

"Allen, that's actually awesome!" Lou Fa whispered to her surprise.

"Eh? How?"

"Well, you get the whole house to yourself!"

"So?"

"And you get to do whatever you want with no parents or guardians to watch over you. You could like, invite everybody to a party at your house!"

"Er, I don't think-"

"And you could invite two guys over to make out with!"

"Lou Fa!"

"Oh right, you don't even hang out with any guys. But we could have a totally awesome party at your place instead, and you know, invite everyone!"

Allen ignored Lou Fa and turned her face back towards Mr. Sokaro, who was still writing down notes on the board. She was exasperated, and Lou Fa didn't even understand. But of course, Lou Fa didn't know about the _debt, _and Allen didn't even want her to know, otherwise she might have called the police in a second. Which actually, when she thought about it more, wasn't really a bad thing.

The only problem though, was that some part of her deep down inside still cared for Cross Marian.

But that part was getting smaller everyday.

* * *

"Oh my gosh, Lenalee Lee is so pretty."

"I know. I could turn lesbian anytime for that bitch."

"Well, I wouldn't, erm, go that far, but I do have to admit that she is pretty talented."

"Whatever. I'm getting her new CD today. That song Crystallization is so good!"

"You serious? I'm so sick of that song. They played it on the radio like waaaay too many times."

Allen walked past the group of chattering people as the last bell for the dismissal of school rang. The hallways were filled with noisy teenagers, all blabbering stuff about their lives, the celebrities, and their lives. Somehow, it seemed like out of everyone at school, she had the most problems to deal with. And as if that wasn't enough already, she had to deal with the people at school as well, since so many people made fun of her hair color. Like wow, seriously. She had to be pretty perfect if the only thing people could make fun of was her _hair_.

"Excuse me." The white haired girl coughed as the people standing in front of her locker moved out of the way, staring at her like they usually did.

Allen ignored them and turned her lock. But then her hands froze. Wait. What was her locker combination again? She had completely forgotten the numbers used to open that lock everyday. Was it Cross? Wait no-it had to be Vegas. No it wasn't! The combination was j-o-b! Or was it money-money-money?

"Dammit!" Allen Walker shook her head in frustration as she clicked open her lock, remembering that the combination was actually 35-17-54, and not Cross-reads-porn or something like that. People around her locker blinked at her, but Allen didn't notice it all. She was too busy stuffing her books inside to care.

The British girl glanced down at her watch; it was almost 4:00, so that meant she had to leave soon to get to the animal shelter. No, she wasn't going to donate herself to the pound if that's what you were thinking-she had to go to her job, or _one _her jobs, that happened to be at the animal shelter.

After stuffing most of her books in the locker and keeping a few that she needed, Allen slammed her locker shut and pushed past the crowd of students quickly. She was going to be late if she didn't hurry up and her boss was going to get pissed again. Even though this job was the one that paid the least, it was her favorite out of all of them, because she liked animals. Before Cross had left, she had considered going to the pound more as a volunteering duty and not a way to earn money, but now that Cross had escaped to Vegas leaving her with a huge debt, she had to rethink this all over again. Maybe she should just quit-the animal shelter didn't pay much and she actually needed a serious job now. But then, it wasn't going to be easy looking for another job that could pay more and it also needed to be close to the area, since nobody could drive her now that Cross was gone. Not that Cross ever drove her when he was there. That poophead was such a poophead he would never-

"Ow!"

Books flew everywhere as Allen landed on the floor with a thump. Her mind was too occupied by that damn Cross to notice where she was walking. That guy's fault, again!

"Here."

The British girl glanced up to see a strong hand offering to help her up. She looked up to see who she had bumped into and to her surprise, and it was Lavi, the most popular guy at school. She had never talked to him before, but _everybody _knew who THIS redheaded hottie was.

"Sorry, I didn't see you." Allen mumbled quickly as she grabbed his hand and pulled herself up, brushing the dirt off her clothes as she stood. The eye patch wearing guy was busy gathering her books from the ground, but he suddenly lifted his head up and grinned to her surprise.

"Holy fuck!" Lavi exclaimed as Allen took a startled step back. "Your accent is sick!"

Allen rubbed the back of her head and blinked. She wasn't expecting the most popular guy at school to say something like this.

"It's called being British." She told him without a tone in her voice.

"My god! Say that again!"

"Err, could I just have my books back please? I'm kind of in a hurry."

"Say, uh, bloody hell. I love it when they do that, like in Harry potter!"

"Bloody hell." Allen muttered through gritted teeth. She wasn't saying it for Lavi-she only said it out of impatience because she didn't expect him to be like, well, this. But apparently according to her friend Lou Fa, energetic and outgoing guys were all the rage right now.

Lavi dropped the books her had picked up into Allen's arm with a toothy smile on his face. "Here," He said, satisfied with Allen's British word. "Man, your gloves are awesome too! What, did you just transfer here from England?"

Allen hugged the books tightly to her chest. What a crappy understanding of crap this guy had. "No." She muttered. "And I wear gloves because I have hand fungus."

Lavi instantly took a tiny tumble backwards, even though it was a lie. Allen wore gloves for other reasons, and it was probably worse than just hand fungus.

"Erm, well, see ya around then." Lavi said as he swallowed something down his throat.

"Thanks anyways." Allen smiled evilly as she took off, leaving people in the hallways to stare with disbelief, as in, "Whoa! What the hell was Lavi doing with Allen Walker? Could they be part of a secret investigation team working for the FBI?"

Allen walked past the astounded stares in a hurry to get to the pound. Lavi had the behavior of such a typical hottie in high school; it wasn't that surprising at all, actually. Only she hadn't expected him to be so nice-she always imagined Lavi to be a brat who didn't talk to average people like her. But she guessed that nice came in a package along with the popularity. It made sense. Lavi was in basically every sport the school had to offer, along with many other student-council related clubs. Apparently he even helped the librarian organize books after school sometimes when he didn't have a lacrosse practice to go to, and she knew all this stuff not because she was a stalker, but because EVERYBODY knew. The hallways were always filled with echoes of _shite_ about him, so it was kind of impossible to not know this stuff, unless all of your classes went on in your locker. But still, it was really surprising that Lavi wasn't, well…...what she expected. And she was actually kind of happy now, because well, it was hard to believe that he wasn't an arse!

* * *

"Allen."

"Yeah, I'm here!" The white haired girl answered as she dropped her backpack and rolled up the sleeves of her hoodie. "What do I need to do today?"

The blonde woman let out a sigh, as Allen stood in the center of the animal shelter, blinking at her. Cloud Nyne wasn't really the type to be all depressed-she was one of the most kick-ass people that Allen knew. But when it came to animals, she had a really soft side as well.

"More dogs. Left at the front door. This morning."

Allen sniffed. What a cruel, cruel, world it was. "Do you know their owners?"

"No. they were all tied against the poll on their by their leashes."

"Maybe we should get rid of that stupid pole." Allen mumbled as she glanced up at the monkey perched up on Cloud Nyne's shoulder. Lau, a skinny monkey, was that woman's most beloved pet. Apparently, she had gotten the monkey at a wildlife shelter and they had bonded so well that ever since Cloud adopted him they could never be apart. Lau was literally ALWAYS on her shoulder.

"So." Said Cloud monotonously as Lau blinked at Allen with light blue eyes. "Today, I'm going to let you clean up the cages in the rabbit house. But first I want you to go see those new dogs. I've put them in the empty cages beside each other, you know, the ones near Barney the German Shepherd.

"Okay." Allen said as she pushed open the doors and left Cloud's office. Time to get working again.

Allen walked through the row of cages in the place for abandoned dogs. Puppies were barking and howling and it was complete chaos. But typical of a pound. She felt really bad for all the dogs that were abandoned by their owners though-some of the reasons were the most retarded ones ever. Like, "Oh yeah! We um, got a goldfish. And the dog might kill it. So, er, we thought the pound was the best choice." A bit exaggerated, but basically the reasons for throwing their pets into the shelter were as stupid as that.

"Woof!" Barney, a German shepherd barked happily as he saw Allen coming towards him.

"Hello!" Allen smiled as she knelt down beside Barney's cage. The other dogs barked more loudly for attention as Barney gave her hand a quick lick.

"I heard that you got some new neighbors today." Allen said as the dog wagged his tail cheerfully. The British girl got up trotted over to the cages beside Barney. The German Shepherd barked as Allen knelt down beside the new dogs.

"Poor things." Allen mumbled as the new dogs glanced up at her with depressed expressions on their faces. Just as she was about to open the door to the cages to pet them, a loud, high bark inside startled her from behind.

"Woof!"

Allen turned around in surprise, but when she saw the furry little animal that had made the sound, she was so shocked that she lost her balance and stumbled onto the floor.

"TIMCAMPY?!"

* * *

Hope you review! Please no flames- they are way to hot for me (haha I know what that means now, thankyou Kame-tan)

Constructive critism is welcoommmmeeeeee!!

:D

P.S-I promise that Chapter 2 is going to be waaaaay better!

Oh, and for those of you that have been reading my other story, thanks so much and don't worry! I'll still update it alot!

Please tell me your thoughts for this story, thanks!


	2. Been thru this all before

HEY HEY HEY! So chapter 2 is finally up! I know this might not make any sense but this story is currently on half-hiatus. For certain reasons. So updates will be slow and the plot might be retarded...if there is one. A plot, I mean.

PLease just read it anyway though-and also I'll be updating Kanda Steals Lenalee's Kidney soon so watch out for that one! :D

* * *

_TWO_

Yuu Kanda stabbed his fork into the huge piece of flesh and watched the blood ooze out onto the plate.

"Is there something wrong, Yuu?"

From across the long table, Froi Tiedoll, his adoptive father, raised an eyebrow as he held a round wine glass in one hand.

"Hell yeah there is. I want fucking soba."

The Japanese teen glared at the old man for a minute and glanced down at the steak, which was done medium rare to his disliking. One stab of a fork and blood was coming out of the meat already. Disgusting. In fact, so disgusting he had forgotten to tell Tiedoll not to call him by his first name, since his mind was so concentrated on what was on the plate sitting in front of him.

"Kanda, just eat it!" Sitting beside him, a Chinese girl with long black hair tied into pigtails rolled her pretty eyes as she took a sip of her drink- probably something non-alcoholic. "You can't just eat soba everyday. That's like, so _unhealthy_."

"I can eat whatever the hell I want." Kanda didn't bother turning towards his childhood friend Lenalee as he took a gulp of the cold water sitting near his plate. Stupid gay dinner arranged by his father. Why did he have to sit at the huge table and eat food that he hated with his family and the guests?

Tiedoll smiled nervously in embarrassment as he turned his head to a Chinese man with glasses, who was sitting beside him. "Sorry, Komui." The man apologized. "I guess Kanda forgot to take his happy pills today."

The man named Komui laughed at the unfunny remark, not seeming to mind at all. "Kanda hasn't changed a bit." He noted as the Japanese teen tried to ignore them both. "Still the same little kid from when I knew him."

"What, the little kid who couldn't find the red crayons?" Sitting at the other side of the table, a dude wearing a hat snickered as he played with his food and smiled at Kanda to test what his reaction was.

"Daisya!" Tiedoll whispered at him, but it was already too late.

"Say that to my face and I'll stick crayons up your ass."

Kanda warned loudly. Tiedoll slapped a hand to his forehead and shook his head disappointedly as the guy named Daisya let out a satisfied smile. He seemed to enjoy it when his adoptive brother said rude things to him-the clown seriously needed a life. "I'm so sorry, Komui." The old man muttered apologetically, covering his face into his hands hopelessly. "My kids are so…undisciplined. I'm truly embarrassed."

The man named Komui took a sip of his red wine. "No, no." he laughed and shook his head. "After all, Kanda and Daisya are at a rebellious age. I mean, what are they? Like eighteen?"

Tiedoll didn't look too convinced as he glanced uneasily at the Chinese girl sitting across the table from him, taking a bite of her own steak. "Yes, but Lenalee is around that age too and she is so…well behaved." The man realized sadly.

Kanda glanced at the Chinese girl quickly from the edge of his eye, but she noticed. Lenalee turned to him and winked playfully to his annoyance.

"Well, girls do mature faster than boys I guess…" Komui laughed. Then he turned to Kanda, who was stabbing a silver fork into his food, not bothering to join in the conversation at all. "Kanda," he said, "I would like to inform you that no matter how many times you poke your steak, it won't turn into soba."

The Japanese guy glared at him from for a second. "Well, that's certainly something new." He said, as he continued to watch the blood squeeze out of the meat.

"So, how are things going at Black Order Academy since I have been away? Is Howard Link treating you guys fairly?" Komui asked, not bothered by his sarcasm at all.

Kanda gulped down more water from his glass. That damn new principal was hell compared to Komui, the original owner of the private school that he went to. But for some reason Komui had left (due to business reasons probably-he owned a lot of big companies around) and had hired somebody named Link as the new principal of Black Order Academy, and he was giving everybody a horrible time with his ugly face and retarded rules. "That bastard can go throw himself out a window." Kanda answered. "You should fire Howard Link and come back."

Komui brightened up in surprise. "Really?" He squealed in an unmanly way. "Wow Kanda! That's flattering! But unfortunately, you're just going to have to deal with my absence and put up with your principal. You see, I still have some business to take care of, one of them including Lenalee's career."

Tiedoll widened his eyes and pushed up his glasses. "Oh, right!" The man said, suddenly remembering something. "How is everything coming along? Will Lenalee be releasing her new album soon?"

Suddenly the Chinese girl beside Kanda giggled. "It's coming out on Christmas eve!" Lenalee announced happily. "Originally it was going to come out in January, but Floral records say they want it out as soon as possible. You know how they're money crazy."

"Che." said Kanda. "I'm not surprised."

Lenalee shrugged. "Yeah, well. I'm actually glad. This is my best album yet, because it contains so many hit singles."

Tiedoll suddenly got up from his chair and started dancing, startling everyone at the table.

"_You got me crystallized, its crystallization! Baby you know you got me, in crystallization_."

Kanda dropped his fork in shock as Tiedoll kept singing and dancing in front of everybody. What the hell was he doing? He glanced at Daisya and for once his brother wasn't laughing, but his mouth was hanging open in surprise.

"_Yeah baby that's what it is, its crystallization. Your eyes are so deep, trapping me in crystallization!" _

Lenalee laughed as the song came to an end. Tiedoll bowed and she was the only one who clapped. "Woo-hooo!!!" the Chinese girl was almost out of her seat. "That was freaking awesome!"

Everybody else just sort of sat there in a daze as Kanda's adoptive father bowed a few more times.

Tiedoll blushed, quite embarrassed. "I've memorized all the lyrics to that song." He admitted as he sat back down into his seat beside a wide-eyed Komui.

"I think it's obvious." Kanda said through gritted teeth. Honestly, Tiedoll was such a hypocrite. He would always tell Kanda how embarrassing he acted, but in real life, his father was the embarrassing one that needed to go shun himself from the world.

Lenalee didn't seem to mind though. "Wow, Mr. Tiedoll." she said. "I didn't know that you listened to my music."

Tiedoll chuckled. "Who doesn't?" He laughed.

Kanda almost wanted to point out that he didn't listen to girly songs by Lenalee Lee and neither did more than half of the world, but then, it was pretty rude, considering the fact that the popstar was sitting right there at their table, eating disgusting steak that the chefs had cooked. He was mean, but he wouldn't ever say something like that, especially not to a girl.

"Uh, so." Komui spoke loudly, trying hard to change the subject. "How is business, Froi?"

Kanda's adoptive father turned his head finally to Komui and smiled. "Ah, well, Eden is doing well as always."

"Really? Even with the economy like this?"

"Yes. Even though the numbers have dramatically decreased, people still need their products and everything, so they are still buying things such as laptops, electronics, motorcycles, and musical instruments from Eden brand."

"What about Earl and co.? Is it beating you guys?"

"Unfortunately….yes. But we are very close to catching up, and please don't tell anyone this, but Eden is coming up with a new design that will probably control the market once it is out."

"I see. But what's going to happen to Eden when, you know…."

Froi Tiedoll smiled and glanced and Kanda, who sat there looking pissed as usual. "Well, after I retire, I guess Kanda is the only one who can take my place. Daisya will be too busy with soccer and Noise Marie is still studying to be a doctor in Harvard, so I guess that leaves Kanda."

The Japanese teen crossed his arms as the two adults continued their conversation.

"I don't want to."

Tiedoll and Komui both turned around and glanced at him in surprise. Daisya perked up from his usual slouched position and spun around to Kanda as he waited for jaws to drop open.

"What?" Tiedoll pushed up his glasses unbelievably. "What did you just say, my boy?"

Kanda stiffened. "I said I don't want to. Damn it. Don't make me repeat it."

Tiedoll looked like he was about to choke on something. "What?" he asked incredulously, staring at Kanda along with everybody else at the table, including the servants near the door. "You don't WANT to inherit Eden? But why, Yuu?"

"I just-"Kanda searched for the right words. "I want- you should-"but then he gave up. "Just, argh! Fuck this all!" Kanda shook his head in frustration as he got up from the table and left the grand dining room, leaving Tiedoll, Komui, Daisya, and Lenalee blinking after him, puzzled.

"I'm going for a walk!"

They heard Kanda call as he closed the door behind him with a slam, some of the servants following after him in a hustle as they tried to stop him from leaving.

"Well!" said Lenalee after a long moment of silence. "That was…random."

Daisya shrugged and yawned. "He probably just needed an excuse to get out of eating that steak."

Tiedoll nodded in agreement. "Yes. He's probably in the kitchen asking the chefs to make some soba or tempura." Or at least, that's what Tiedoll wanted to believe in. He couldn't bear the thought of Kanda not wanting to be the heir to the Tiedoll business-a brand named Eden that sold basically every product on the market, from electronics to instruments to motorbikes to furniture to everything else you could think of. President Tiedoll, worth 2.4 million.

"Should I go after him?" Lenalee offered cheerfully.

Tiedoll shook his head. "No, its alright." He told the Chinese popstar. "Kanda just needs some time…alone."

Which was probably right. The Japanese teen had been acting even more….unusual these days.

* * *

"I hate him. I hate him. I hate him. Yes, I absolutely hate him."

Allen Walker stood in front of the tiny puppy as dark emo thoughts clouded her mind. It was always clear to her that Cross was a cruel man, but it never occurred to her that he could do something as evil as this. Like, seriously. Timcampy was his own freaking dog. Cross was the one who had gotten him from some random breeder a few months ago. And yet, the chow chow was sitting in front of HER, wagging its tail as she tried to remember if there was any left over dog food in the house.

"Woof!"

The puppy was starting to get impatient now waiting for it's meal. Allen groaned; she didn't even know why she had adopted Timcampy from the pound in the first place, or why Cross had done something as evil as leaving him there. It wasn't really fair to the other dogs-she had adopted HIM out of all the poor animals in the shelter waiting for a home, and it had cost her a hundred dollars. Not that it mattered much anymore- she had tried to convince Cloud Nyne that the little puppy was originally hers (well, Cross's), but the woman had just shook her head and frowned at her. And so Timcampy was back in the house in exchange for a hundred bucks, with no discount.

"Wait here." Allen said to the puppy through gritted teeth. "There's no more dog food left in the house. I'll be right back."

"Woof!" Timcampy wagged his tail happily as Allen sighed, grabbed her hoodie from where it was slung across the couch, took the keys, and closed the door behind her.

It was eight o clock at night, and the closest place that sold pet food was well, far far away in Walmart. But of course she'd just have to take a forty minute walk there-darn. The neighborhood that Cross lived in was so inconvenient!

Outside, it was a cool, silent night. Allen stood outside of her house and stared at the car that Cross had left behind, still in the garage, untouched. Had she been the wild type, she would have probably hopped in the Hummer (yes, Cross drives a Hummer) and drove to Walmart with her hands in the air screaming "Hell yeah I'm rebellious and young!", even though she didn't have a license and was only like, 15.

But, being the straight-stick Allen Walker that she was, the British girl just let out a light sigh and walked away from the house, leaving Timcampy and the car alone.

After passing through all of the houses on the way and all the grocery stores that didn't sell pet food (which was really retarded), Allen arrived in the parking lot of the giant blue Walmart sign and walked in through the sliding doors glumly. She looked around-the place was almost empty and it was going to close up soon, so she headed straight for the pets section.

When she was finished grabbing seven bags of Iams, the white-haired girl left the aisle more depressed than ever. This was going to cost her quite a bit-Timcampy ate almost as much as she did, and well… she ate… um, _alot_. Which lead her to wondering how she was going to pay for all the food that she consumed and the debts AND Timcampy's needs with three jobs. And that lead her deeply into her thoughts again as she walked towards the cash registers, with her head down. She didn't even realize where she was going until suddenly she felt herself hit something hard.

"Ah!" Allen stammered as she dropped the bags of dog food on the floor and took a little stumble back.

"Watch where you're going, old man." A guy much taller than her hissed as he walked away without bothering to apologize, leaving a startled Allen staring after him, along with a few others that were in the area.

"Learn some manners, will you Miss?" somebody behind Allen called angrily at the guy who was walking towards the exit.

Allen spun around at the familiar voice and recognized the most popular guy at school shouting after the guy she had bumped into. She blinked up at the angry redhead in confusion. What was Lavi doing here at Walmart? Coincidence much!

"What the fuck did you just call me?" the guy suddenly stopped in his tracks and whipped around, his long dark colored ponytail swaying as he did so. Allen blinked in surprise-it was a man that had a womanish hairdo, but his expression told her that he was pretty pissed and he probably wasn't going to start acting very much like a noble woman soon.

"Oh my god!" Lavi exclaimed in surprise and pointed a finger at him. "You-you're a guy!"

"And you're going to have mugen forced up your ass if you don't shut your trap."

Even though she didn't know what a mugen was, Allen flinched at the words coming out of the man anyways. But for some reason it got her really mad. Who did he think he was, talking all high and mighty like he was god?!

"Pick on somebody with your own sense of style!" Allen shouted after him, unable to take her eyes off of his long, silky, dark hair. Like, seriously. The heck? What was the dude-some hair stylist for the mentally challenged?

"Shut up, old man!" the guy called without bothering to glance at Allen as he walked away carelessly.

"Do I look like an old man to you?" Allen called after him furiously, causing the guy to pause and turn his head slightly. Only slightly though. He glanced down at the white-haired girl with his head turned sideways, but didn't say anything as he took the sight in. It was clear that his eyes reflected surprise when he saw Allen, but he remained silent and just left.

"Che, I could care less." The man muttered as he left the shop through the exit sliding doors, leaving a furious Allen and a confused Lavi staring after him.

"Wow." said Lavi as he scratched the back of his head. People had stopped shopping and were staring at them. Some were whispering about how rude the dark haired guy was. "What's wrong with him?"

Allen glared after the sliding doors as she bent down and picked up a bag of Iams. "Who knows." She grumbled angrily. "He's probably got a flute up his arse or something."

Lavi turned to Allen and suddenly laughed at the girl. "A flute?" He grinned to her surprise. "I was thinking more like, you know, a trombone. The giant types you use in giant orchestras for giant asses in a giant auditorium."

Allen couldn't help but smile. If only the people around her were more like this guy. "Yeah." She agreed as she laughed. "A trombone. I like it."

Lavi looked amused as he knelt down and picked up a few bags of dog food. "What are all these for?" He asked as he handed Allen the bags. "Is your house a dog daycare or something?"

Allen took the bags from him and shook her head. "No." she answered as she got up, trying to balance the seven packages of dog food in her arms. "But I do have a dog, and he really likes…..Iams."

Which wasn't exactly true. Timcampy enjoyed eating socks too. As well as Chinese food. Or anything on earth that wasn't poisonous.

Lavi stared at her for a moment, but let out a chuckle soon after. "Well." He smiled goofily. "You know what they say. Life is better on Iams."

(lol random commercial-no they aren't paying me to do this)

Allen looked at Lavi strangely. "Yeah." She said as she began to walk away from him and towards the self-checkout. She dumped the bags in front of the machine and pressed start.

"You know," Lavi went on, following her for some reason as she scanned the items. "We seem to have been bumping into each other a lot, but I don't even know your name."

Allen glanced up at the redhead, who was so much taller than her. "Its Allen Walker." She told him as she put the dog food into a giant bag and took out her wallet from the pocket of her jeans.

"Allen Walker?" Lavi said thoughtfully, looking up at the ceiling. "Eh? That's pretty-"

"Strange?" the British girl interrupted him. Lavi blinked back.

"Yeah, I mean…that's um…a guy's name."

Allen shrugged as she took out a bill and put it inside the machine. "My father thought that I was a boy when he first adopted me, so he called me that." Change splurted out of the machine and Allen picked up the coins, putting them back inside her wallet. "Eventually, he uh…figured out that I was a girl-" Lavi looked horrified as Allen put up her hands-"No, not in _that _way! Anyways, eventually he realized that I was a girl, but the name Allen Walker had already caught on and so…yeah. Even Cross calls me Allen Walker now."

Lavi tilted his head to one side as Allen put her wallet and grabbed the bags. "Who's Cross?" He wanted to know.

Allen smiled devilishly as dark thoughts zoomed past her head. "Cross?" she said innocently. "Oh! Cross is just some bisexual guy who is after women, men, alcohol, and marijuana. He lives around my neighborhood."

"Oh." Lavi said without much of a tone. "Must be a dangerously exciting neighbor."

"Yeah," Allen said as she lifted up the super heavy bags and went towards the exit. "Well, thanks Lavi. See ya around."

To her surprise, the redhead burst out laughing hysterically. "Well!" Lavi said, wiping away a tear as Allen stood there staring at him, wondering what was so funny. "Looks like somebody knows my name when I haven't even told them yet!"

Allen froze in embarrassment. Uh-oh. She could feel herself turning as red as Lavi's hair. The redhead had never told her that his name was Lavi-but she just knew anyways because, well, who didn't know the name of the most popular guy in school? She had definitely known a long, long, time ago-probably since when she was a freshman. But anyways, now he was going to get the wrong idea, like for example maybe he would start to think that she _liked _him, which made Allen even more mortified.

Finally, Lavi stopped laughing and grinned at the white-haired girl. "It figures." He said crossing his arms behind his head lazily. "I mean, who doesn't know who I am?"

Allen felt her face go hot. "Don't sound so full of yourself." She mumbled. "Whatever. I have to go now."

"Don't you need help carrying those bags to your car?" Lavi called as she left the store through the sliding doors.

"I'm fifteen, if that clicks anything into your brain." Allen let out a sigh as she walked into the parking lot.

Suddenly, the redhead had caught up to her again, making her wonder why he was following her around. "Did I mention that your accent is really awesome?" Lavi said cheerfully, walking beside her as she tried to get away from him.

"Yes." said Allen as she glanced up at the eye patch wearing guy. She had always wondered what happened to Lavi's right eye-you didn't see too many people wearing eye patches nowadays. "Are you going to follow me home?"

"No." Lavi answered playfully. "But I can give you a ride."

Allen halted in her tracks suddenly and stared at the smiling redhead in shock. "Seriously, Lavi!" the white haired girl said. "I know better than to get into a stranger's car! We've known each other for like what, five minutes?"

Lavi looked surprised. "What? You're rejecting my offer?" He sounded like he couldn't believe what was going on. "Dude, do you know how many girls would kill to-"

"Get dropped off by you?" Allen finished for him. "What are you going to say next, that you have candy?"

"Um, I have candy?" Lavi tried, receiving a glare from Allen. "Okay, fine. Geez! Just offering a ride! I mean, those bags look pretty heavy."

"I appreciate your offer Lavi," said Allen said as she walked out of the parking lot and onto the streets, which were now empty. "But not going into a stranger's car is a basic rule that is taught to kids at a very young age by their parents, not that I remember what mine looked like."

Lavi couldn't believe what Allen was saying as she continued to blabber on.

"Never mind that, though." She continued on with her British accent. "You should get back to wherever you should be going now-it's getting pretty late and there are rapists out there at this time of the night who are after redheads like you." Allen looked up at him and gave a tiny smile. "It was nice meeting you though. See you again at school."

Lavi stared after her as she left him standing there.

"Uh…"he said as she walked off. "Well then, bye Allen!!!" He called after her in that loud voice of his. "See ya later!"

The white-haired girl turned around and tried to give a little wave but her hands were full of bags. "Thanks again, Lavi!" she said. Then she turned around and walked away from Walmart.

Lavi scratched the back of his head as he watched Allen's figure disappear slowly.

Weird. How come he had never noticed this girl before?

* * *

"KANNNDAAAA!"

Was what Yuu Kanda heard when he stepped out of the black Bentz that stopped at the front gate of his house, doors held open by a chauffer. Grumbling in annoyance, the Japanese man glared at the person who had called out his name so loudly, and it was Lenalee, the famous pop star who was a guest at his house tonight.

"Kanda, where were you?" Lenalee asked as she bounded over to Kanda, happy to see her childhood friend again.

"Around." The Japanese man answered as they began to make their way over to the giant front doors of the mansion, bodyguards following behind him.

Lenalee pouted prettily. "Kanda, seriously." She looked him in the eye with her own violet ones. "Say a normal sentence for once, _please_."

"What the fuck do you expect me to say?" Kanda snapped as he walked faster, making it hard for Lenalee to catch up with him. "I was at Walmart, okay? Why are you still at my house?"

Lenalee just blinked, ignoring his rudeness. "Walmart?" she ran to catch up with him. His legs were so freaking long, no wonder he walked so fast. "Why were you-"she laughed as she said the word-"at _Walmart_?"

Kanda stopped and glared at the Chinese girl as they reached the front door. "Why do you think?" He spat, clearly still in a bad mood. "To get away from that old man, obviously." The long haired guy stepped into the Chandelier-lit house as the front doors automatically opened after the video camera got signal of Tiedoll's son. Behind him Lenalee followed along with two hunky bodyguards dressed in black.

"And so you picked Walmart?" Lenalee tried to control her giggle as Kanda ignored the black haired girl.

"Che. It was the closest place around."

"You know," said Lenalee as she poked him on the shoulder, causing the Japanese guy to spin around in annoyance. "We were all pretty shocked when you just left like that."

Kanda narrowed his eyes even though they were small enough already. "What do you want me to fucking do about it?" He demanded as a servant took of his coat and hung it on the antique-styled coat racket. He was in such a bad mood-when he was at Walmart, some redhead guy had accused him of being a girl. And if there was only one thing that pissed him of the most, it was people thinking that he was a woman. Which he was clearly not, those fucked up dickheads.

Lenalee yawned and stretched out her arms. "Komui is having a chat with your father upstairs." She told him, not that he cared what that old man was up to now. That old geezer was probably having a conversation about business and money, or his latest piece of art that was considered beautiful even though Kanda would have thought that it looked hideously crappy. "But anyways. I was wondering…." Lenalee glanced up at the Japanese man innocently. "Back when we were eating dinner….did you really mean what you said?"

Kanda looked down at her. "Said what?"

Lenalee rolled her eyes. "Baka." She muttered the only Japanese word she knew and looked at him again. "You know, the part where you said you didn't want to inherit Eden?"

Kanda stiffened at the topic. He glanced around at the two body guards and the coat-hanger, who were all pretending to be busy with something. It was obvious though, that their ears were perked up, listening to the conversation with lots of interest. _Everybody _wanted to know if he was the one that would be inheriting Tiedoll's business empire once the old man retired –including the press.

"Che." Was all he managed to say in front of those people. Lenalee let out a sigh in disappointment as he told her his answer. Che was the word he used when he didn't have much to say-and he certainly didn't have anything to say-at least not in front of two fucking body guards and a man in charge of welcoming people. This was his own private business and choice. He didn't have to share it with anybody.

"Whatever. You don't have to tell me if you don't want to." Lenalee let out another sigh as she grabbed Kanda's arm and pulled him up the stairs, causing him to twitch with alert. He wasn't used to….touching people. (ewww gross sounding, haha!)

"But you know you're going to have to deal with Tiedoll, right?" Lenalee pointed out as Kanda jerked his arm away from her. The Chinese girl gave him a look. "Alright, I won't touch you." She said in exasperation. "But I'm just warning you that when you see Tiedoll he'll probably want an answer."

"Che." Said Kanda, turning his head to the side. He fucking knew that much. "How long are you going to be at my house for?"

Lenalee blinked at the Japanese man. "Why? I'm not bothering you."

"Hell yes you are."

"Oh my god, you are so….dislikable." Lenalee shook her head in frustration. "I'm leaving in about an hour-as soon as Tiedoll and Komui are done. I mean, those two haven't seen each other in like, ages. And my brother is leaving the country tomorrow. They should get the chance to reunite and stuff."

Kanda remained silent.

"Not that you would know what reuniting with an old friend feels like." Lenalee teased, causing her to get another death glare from the guy. She just ignored him though. "So anyway, why are you in such a bad mood? I mean, I know you always are, but you seem to be even…angrier."

Kanda glared at her. "Who said that I was?" He hissed. Lenalee had just added more wood to the fire that was already burning down a whole town.

The hot popstar took a deep breath and giggled much to his disgust. "Yuu Kanda." She said, smiling. "Like seriously. You are so readable."

* * *

Timcampy barked in joy as Allen poured dog food into the bowl. The little puppy rushed over hurriedly, tripping over his own feet as he tried to dig his head into the bowl to take a bite. Allen placed a strand of her white hair behind her ear as she watched the puppy munch. That trip to Walmart had cost her over fifty bucks-not that she could do anything about it now. Except maybe fly to Vegas and murder Cross in whichever casino that he was hanging in. She already had a plan for his assassin; first she would break his glasses so he couldn't see, then she would tell all of the ladies around him that he secretly liked to watch Hello Kitty, and then finally she would shoot him right in front of everyone and not mind going to jail because there was nothing worth living for when you were harassed by your guardian and his debts 24/7.

Then Allen shook her head quickly. No, no. What was she thinking? No matter how horrible Cross was, this wasn't the time to have emo thoughts. She had to live on happily for Mana, her old guardian-or her _father _as she liked to call him. He was a father a hundred times better than Cross, not that she had ever considered Cross Marian as her father. She had always considered the womanizer as more of a…master than a dad. After all, Cross was the one who had taught her self defense when she was younger; she had never asked him why she needed to learn the reason a guy's balls were the correct place to do a push-kick when in danger, but she had always known that being with Cross was rather dangerous. Cross had always carried a gun with him too-Allen wasn't sure if he had the license to have one or not, but she always got the dangerous vibe whenever she was around him. Unlike the safe, warm, Mana, being with Cross was always like riding on a rollercoaster that was never tested for safety problems. It had always felt like something dangerous could happen at any moment. She didn't know why either-she didn't know much about her guardians past, except that he was rich once (which was really surprising to Allen) in his life. She had also never bothered to ask questions-one because he wouldn't have answered them in the first place, and two because she wasn't allowed in bars-the place where Cross spent most of his time. But wait. Why was she thinking about this stuff again?

The British girl frowned and went into the kitchen of the tiny house. Just as Allen was about to make something for herself to eat, there was a sudden knock at the door, startling them both. Timcampy barked and rushed over to the door, barking loudly and scratching his paws all over while Allen rushed over, picked up the puppy and moved it out of the way.

"Who is it?" The white haired girl called with caution. It was ten o clock at night-she didn't get many visitors during this hour. Unless it was some man with a beard who was pissed at Cross for reasons she could have guessed.

"A-Allen?" A rather feminine voice called from the other side. "It's me, Miss Anita!"

Timcampy let out another bark as Allen opened the door slowly. Standing before her was a pretty Asian woman dressed in a floral patterned dress, lips painted with bright red lip stick and face covered in a lot of foundation. She had a kind expression on her face, but for some reason she looked uneasy.

"Miss Anita!" Allen exclaimed. "What are you doing here?"

This woman, called Anita, was one of Cross's girlfriends. Allen had met her a few times before, when Cross had invited her over for dinner at their house. She was pretty nice and quite beautiful too. Even though her guardian had way too many girlfriends to count, Anita was special to him apparently. She wasn't just his girlfriend for a "night", but according to Cross they were in a long-term relationship, which surprised Allen a lot. She didn't know what Cross had meant by that, but long-term to him probably meant two days instead of one.

"Allen." Anita said politely. "I know that Cross has left, but um,"

"You know that Cross has left?!" Allen echoed in disbelief. Wow, if Cross had said something like that to her then she really must have been special. So what was she doing here if she new…uh-oh. Now that Cross had left was Anita going to move on to her instead of her guardian?

"Yes." Anita sighed as Allen took a step back. "He told me the night before he left."

Ah, so that was where he was that night. This angered Allen. Was this woman more important to him than her? He had told Anita the whole Vegas thing when he didn't even bother mentioning it to Allen until he left the day after! What was he supposed mean by that?!

Anita stared at Allen as she fumed. The white haired girl sort of noticed though, and she scratched the back of her head in embarrassment.

"Oh, sorry." Allen said as she opened the door wider to let Anita in the house.

"Thank you." The woman dipped her head politely as she stepped in. Timcampy barked and tried to squirm out of Allen's arms as he saw Anita coming in-even the stupid dog knew that this was Cross's special girlfriend.

"Timcampy!" Anita seemed surprised as Allen placed the Chow Chow on the floor.

"Woof!" the puppy wagged his tail in excitement as Anita bent down to pet him.

"Er, sit down!" Allen welcomed as she picked up some beer bottles and porn magazines from the couch and slid them under the mats. Not that she cared whether this woman saw Cross's magazines or alcoholic behaviors -that, much to her disgust, was one of the reasons he was so popular with females in the first place. It was something that she would probably never figure out in her entire life. "Make yourself comfortable."

Anita sat down near the edge of the couch as Allen picked up some cigarette butts and threw them into the garbage can-she hadn't bothered to clean up Cross's mess yet-she was way to busy with work for that. "Would you like something to drink?" Allen offered as she headed towards the kitchen, but Anita shook her head.

"No, its alright." The Asian woman replied. "I'll be very quick."

Allen blinked. "Erm, alright then." She said. So…."

"Well," Anita began as she glanced around the tiny living room, taking all of the sights in. It was probably the messiest house that she had ever seen in her life. "I'm sorry to visit you at this hour, but I have something from Cross to give to you."

"WHAT?!" Allen shouted, startling Anita as well as Timcampy, who had stopped eating and was looking up at her with innocent puppy eyes. "Oh, my apologies…" Allen mumbled, quieting down. "But did you just say that you have something from Cross to give to me?"

Anita nodded as she reached into her small purse and took out an envelope. "It's a package." She told Allen as she gave it to the British girl. "He probably dropped it the other night he was at my house." she explained as Allen blinked in surprise. "I didn't find it until this morning. It was lying there on my bed-"

"Argh!" Allen turned her head away with a horrified expression. "Way too much information!"

Anita stared at the white-haired girl. "Oh, sorry." The Asian woman apologized. "But I just wanted to give it to you. Don't worry, I didn't open or read it."

Allen glanced down at the envelope that she held in her hands. It was pretty heavy. It felt like there was a book inside.

_Hey, kid._

_Bring this to the Tiedoll estate. They obviously don't know you but tell them that it's a letter from Cross if they don't let you in. If you don't give this to him then I swear you're going to be dead soon and I won't be the one who's going to be murdering you._

_If you're curious about what this is about, too bad. I wrote the letter in a diary so there's a lock on it and you won't be able to open it unless you know the password. Tiedoll is the only one who knows, by the way. _

_Screw you. Cross._

Allen clutched the package in anger as she glanced down. At the bottom in the corner there was the address, where the Tiedoll estate was located probably. Tiedoll? She had never heard of a man with that name before. What she was shocked about though, was that Cross actually had guy friends-if that was what this man was. She thought the only friends that he had were called Ladies.

"This must be very important," Anita said, interrupting Allen's thoughts. "If he wrote the letter in a diary. That Cross-I told him to get an email address but he would never listen."

"Oh." Said Allen, not really listening. She barley had the time to make a trip to this Tiedoll man's house when she had to balance three jobs everyday. But maybe tomorrow afternoon would be fine-she could hurry there after working at the café.

Anita stood up. "Well, I'll be leaving now." the woman smiled as she made her way through the mess on the floor and towards the door. Allen got up too and followed behind her as she opened the door and gave one last quick smile. Allen smiled back. "Bye Miss Anita." She called as she closed the door after the Asian woman.

"Woof." Timcampy wagged his tail at Allen lazily. The white haired girl didn't bother glancing at him as she plopped herself down on the couch and sighed. A package from her guardian to some man named Tiedoll, huh? She would have to deliver this to this…estate. Allen glanced down at the package that she was holding.

For some reason, she had a really bad feeling about going to that place.

* * *

**IT WAS MY BIRTHDAY YESTERDAY!!! :D**

...So you should know what to do!

Like you know, maybe hint-review-hint since my Bday is so important and stuff and I should totally get a present from you guys?

LIke a review perhaps?

And that could be your present. To me. As a birthday present?

In the form of a review?

Since you can't really give anything to me because we don't actually know each other?

So all you can do is think about how my birthday was yesterday and give me a review?

lol. The cake was awesome by the way! Thanks for reading! :P


	3. Welcome to the Black Parade

HEYAS! So um, nevermind the half-hiatus thing, since obviously this isn't really a half-hiatus because its only been around a week or something since I last updated. So yea! This is the third chapter like WOOT WOOT! But I'm not really happy with this chapter because I just don't like it much. Blehhhh. And guess what? -SPOILER-Kanda and Daisya appear in this chapter! Like ain't that amazing? I know right? So you know, please review and all that crap because **I SWEAR I'LL UPDATE FASTER IF YOU REVIEW!!! I SWEAR!!!** :D

-and oh yeah! Thanks to everybody who subscribed and faved, and thanks especially to those who actually reviewed because you guys are the ones who know how to make a person's day!-

-and if you would like to get a free internet doughnut, then review goddammit!!!- :P

* * *

"Blow me!"

Allen Walker whispered in amazement as she looked at the mansion up and down. Whoever owned this house that was standing before her had to be _rich_! Like really, really, _rich_. Something that she was sadly not.

First of all, the estate in front of her was like, huge. It had to at least be six times the size of her house, or probably even more. Allen stood there with her mouth wide open as she stared at the outside, with fountains spurting out water everywhere and bushes cut neatly into the shapes of animals and flowers and roses and sunflowers everywhere surrounding the area. The roof was triangular shaped, but the house seemed to have three tiny houses attached to it-a giant main one in the middle and beside it two other houses that were still way bigger than your average house.

It was the biggest house that she'd ever seen in her life!

The British girl glanced down at the address in her hands one last time to make sure that this beautiful estate was the place where this Tiedoll man lived. She still couldn't believe it. How had her master ended up befriending such a wealthy man when he could barley support himself? Allen shook her head in confusion as she walked up towards the giant gates of the estate-it didn't make any sense.

She shifted uncomfortably as a video camera scanned her figure over and over again. There wasn't anybody near the gate, so a voice rang through the speakers suddenly, startling Allen and causing her to straighten up a bit. "And you are here to see…?" the voice from the speakers trailed off questioningly. Allen Walker glanced around the surroundings nervously, trying to figure out where the voice was coming from. It was clear that she was being watched though. Rich people's houses were _scary_.

"Uh, Froi Tiedoll?" Allen answered uncertainly as she shifted around on the balls of her feet. There was a long pause from the speakers, but after what seemed the people had shunned her, there was finally an answer.

"Mr. Tiedoll isn't here at the moment." The voice sounded skeptical. Of course. What kind of girl would need to se a man as important as Froi Tiedoll, an owner of some huge business company… probably?

"Er well, I have a package for him." Allen said to whoever was watching her. She sounded like a delivery girl.

There was another moment of silence. It was as if the voice was deciding whether to let Allen in or not. "Wait there." The person ordered, a bit rudely.

Allen almost rolled her eyes, but didn't. She didn't want the video camera catching sight of that, even though it seemed like the right thing to do when you were at a huge estate to deliver a package from your guardian to some man named Froi Tiedoll. Seriously, she didn't why she was doing this at all-she didn't have to. Cross never would have found out if she didn't. Unless he had other…sources. But she doubted that. His only sources were a woman's boobs. Or a bartender.

Allen half-sighed as she watched the huge gates slowly roll open. She was only doing this because she was Allen Walker-the girl who didn't dare to disobey any rules. Heck, she would have felt _guilty _if she wasn't in front of this house right now, waiting for a signal of some sort to let her in. She was such a...good girl. It sucked.

When the gates were fully open, a man wearing black who was wearing a hat came walking over to the white-haired girl. He didn't have much of an expression on his face-not even a smile. In fact, from what Allen could tell, he looked even a bit…suspicious. Well, she guessed that it made sense-why would a teenage girl with creepy white hair want to have anything to do with a man named Froi Tiedoll randomly? She didn't even know him.

"Hello." The man raised an eyebrow at her when he stopped at the gate. "And you are…?"

"Allen Walker." answered the British girl quickly, getting a raised eyebrow from the man.

"Alright." He said, not being able to take his eyes off of her hair. "You say you have a package?"

Allen nodded and showed him the envelope that was in her arms. "It's a letter from a friend of Tiedolls." She told him. The man eyed the package suspiciously, but Allen just sighed and shook her head. "Don't worry, it's not a bomb." This time she couldn't help rolling her eyes. Rich people…they always liked to wonder if the pizza delivery guy was actually a spy or if the pepperoni pizza was actually a bomb of some sort. It was annoying!

The man just gave her an odd look. "Tiedoll will be back soon." He said. "In the meantime, would you like to come in and wait for a while?"

Allen nodded quickly. "Sure!" She answered as she followed the man and the gates began to close together behind them. Wow, what a surprise! Who knew that the people would actually be willing to let her see a man with such an important-sounding name?

After what seemed like hours of walking though endless flowers, fountains, and trees, they finally reached the huge front doors of the house. She tried not to open her eyes wide in amazement, but it was impossible not to glance at the scenery of the huge house. What was it like to be rich? When Allen got up the steps, the man opened the door for her and in an embarrassed manner, she dipped her head quickly and stepped inside.

More wows and whoas. Only inside her head though. Allen Walker glanced up at the ceiling-there was a huge chandelier that was hung up above the room-like super mega ultra HUGE. Then she looked around. There were giant curly stairs in sight as well-twirled up so much that it looked like one of those cool swirly slides on a playground. Except this one looked like it was made out of really expense material and not plastic. The rest of the large room was just what rich's people's houses were like-full of flowers, vases, a giant piano etc. Very empty as well and only a row of modern looking chairs in the corner.

"Take a seat." The man said suddenly, interrupting her thoughts. Allen obeyed and walked over to the clean seeming chairs, placing herself onto one of them nervously. What was this Tiedoll man like? She wasn't very used to meeting up with important people, and certainly not millionaires.

"Mr. Tiedoll will be here soon." The guy said, not sounding very happy. "Please stay here."

Allen smiled. "Thankyou." She said as the man nodded his head and left the room, leaving her alone in a giant space of whiteness with a golden chandelier on top.

The British girl glanced around. Surprisingly there was nobody in sight-not even body guards, which was funny. You'd think that in such a giant house such as this one, there'd be body guards standing everywhere (literally)-like near the dining table, in the kitchen, in somebody's room, in your bathroom waiting for you in the bathtub, on every step of the stairs, or maybe even in your food!

But nooo, the giant waiting room looked quite empty. In fact, it looked a bit TOO empty, and after around fifteen minutes or so of waiting Allen was starting to get impatient and creeped out. It wasn't because of the scary-looking Roman-style statues that seemed to be staring at her and wondering what she was doing at their house either-no, something about the mansion was just a bit…off for Allen. Something just didn't feel right, and she didn't want to stay in the house for much longer, because it almost felt like there was an evil aura in the house. Stupid sounding, but somehow it was true. And the worst part of it was, she was getting frickin goose bumps.

Taking a deep breath, the British girl got up from her modern looking chair and trotted around the giant marble floors. She glanced up and noticed that the shiny walls were covered with paintings; some of them oil on canvas and others just modern art. It seemed quite interesting, and she was even more surprised when she studied one of them closely and realized that at the bottom, in teeny tiny scribbled letters, it wrote Froi Tiedoll. The name was hard to make out, but the painting was clearly by the same man that she was here to see. So soon she went to every one of the walls in the room and checked the bottom, and every one of them said Froi Tiedoll.

"Is he some kind of a famous artist?" Allen wondered out loud. Or maybe he was just one of those really rich people with a hobby. Allen sighed and shook her head. Rich people…they had so much time on their hands because they didn't have to work their arses off for money.

And before the British girl knew it, her feet started walking on their own and they had carried her out of the room and into the rest of the house. She knew that she shouldn't have been wandering around in this Tiedoll's mans house-it was so rude and she would have been disgusted with herself. But the man's paintings were just so…interesting. And by interesting she didn't mean paintings of nudes-Tiedoll didn't seem to have any inappropriate pictures of body parts put up in his house, thank god. He didn't even seem to paint pictures of naked people. But oh well-you never knew, in fact, maybe he DID have nude pictures. Maybe they were just stored in some kind of a secret private room that nobody knew about.

Without noticing because she was looking so closely at the paintings on the walls Allen accidentally stepped outside into the garden. Finally, after the sunlight shone on her white hair, she sort of noticed that she was lost and realized that she was probably going to get her arse kicked by one of those hunky bodyguards. "Crap." Allen muttered and she glanced around. Somehow she had made her way outside in a place that was supposedly the yard…well it probably was. It did have grass. And trees. Even though it looked more like a forest.

"Bloody hell." Allen cursed, something that she didn't do a lot. But sometimes you just had to say those words. "Shite." She muttered as she glanced around quickly around the area. Unfourtunatley it was just trees, trees, some more trees and a flower.

"Stupid paintings." Allen sighed as she tried to figure out which way was the correct path to get back into the house, since facing her was two paths and clearly she couldn't remember which one she had came from. She was just about to randomly choose one and say "Mini Miney Mino mo," when there was a sudden rustling sound that rang out from the behind the neatly cut bushes. Allen blinked scratched the back of her head curiously and poked her head though the trees, but to her surprise there wasn't anybody there.

"Why do I feel like I'm in a horror movie?" Allen rolled her eyes and tucked her hair behind her ear. Seriously, she could have sworn that there was something behind those bushes. It was way too loud to be a hearing illusion. The white-haired person sort of gave a little shudder and slowly walked back towards the house, whichever path it was. Oh well. They probably had video cameras installed everyone in the mansion anyways so even if she had gotten lost they would probably find her soon.

And besides, even though the house was big, it couldn't have been _that_ big. (wrong!)

After Allen walked into the hallway that seemed to be the way that she had came from, she made a frustrated pout. Because this was a DIFFERENT path, and she knew because the freaking paintings on the freaking walls were freaking different. But still, the paintings were pretty and she liked them.

"Nice." Allen whispered in amazement as she reached out her hand to touch the picture of a Victorian era boy holding the hand of a clown. Just before she barley even felt it though, a sudden force grabbed her by the jacket collar and flipped her over on the ground on her back. "Cor Blimey!" the British girl yelled as she felt herself being pushed onto the ground by something really strong, causing her to be temporarily paralyzed for 5 seconds. It was less then a moment when she opened her eyes in fear and found a long sword being pressed to her neck tightly.

"Rapist?!" she managed to choke out, but when she looked up at the attacker's face she was more than just shocked.

She was bloody shocked.

"Che, even worse…." The attacker snarled but when he saw her face his eyes widened in surprise. "Wait a second." he said, almost dropping his sword. "What the hell? Haven't I seen you before?"

"Let go of me!" Allen cried as she tried to kick his balls, not even caring. Only it was quite sad because her legs weren't even long enough to reach them. So it was probably because he was too tall or she was too short. Either way, she was pretty mad and scared at the same time.

"Che, no fucking way." The guy hissed as he pressed the blade even tighter against Allen's throat. "Tell me how the hell you even got in here, because most people who try don't succeed."

Allen tried to say something to the dark haired guy with a ponytail, but her throat suddenly felt really cracked. She wasn't even kidding when she realized that no sound was coming out.

"Che." The guy noticed as he released her shirt from his grasp and put his sword back into it's sheath, which was hung onto his belt. Yes, because normal people just carry Japanese style swords around and hang them on their belts. "I have so many fucking questions for you, old man."

Allen narrowed her eyes. "I don't even want to know who the heck you are and what you're doing here." She said as she placed a hand on her throat and felt her neck. It seemed to be fine but she was had been so startled that when a sound actually came out of her mouth she was surprised. She could have sworn that she lost a few million brain cells though, and those were quite precious to her, because well…she needed them. But since she was usually used to this kind of thing from-yes you guessed it-her guardian Cross, she wasn't going to scream in fear and then become a mime.

"Why the fuck do I even know your face?" the Asian guy growled.

"Why the hell did you even try to kill me?" Allen Walker cried in exasperation as she tried to take in the sight of the man standing before her.

"Why has our house turned into a senior home?" a random voice asked.

Both teens spun around at the sudden voice and saw a strange looking guy wearing a lot of make up and a weird hat with a dangly ball on top, standing there with an eyebrow raised and hands on his hips. "No, I mean seriously." The guy said curiously, but his eyes suddenly turned wide and he took a step back when he met Allen's gaze. "Holy farting fuck!" he almost shouted out those words, making the British girl flinch. "You're not even an elder!"

Allen blinked back at the man. He almost looked like a clown with his purple eye makeup and weird hat. "I know that." She said in a clear voice, but then felt instantly stupid. Reallly….."I know that?" Why did that even come out of her mouth? "I mean, of course I'm not a senior!" she corrected herself. "Who the heck are-"

"Explain." A low voice boomed out. Allen spun around and saw the Asian guy glaring at her, his sword pointed at her back. "Or I'll slice you up with mugen."

The teen that looked like a clown rubbed his eyes lazily. "What?" he looked at Allen then at the Asian guy who was threatening to kill her. "You don't know her, Kanda?"

The teen named Kanda stared at the man with the weird hat in disbelief. "Why would I know a thief, dumbass?" he hissed at the other. "This little criminal was sneaking around in our house, trying to steal one of Tiedoll's paintings."

"Are you effing serious?" the clown guy widened his eyes in shock.

"What are you talking about?" Allen huffed out an angry puff of air, not seeming to be bothered by the sword still pointed at her. "I came here to see a guy called Tiedoll! Why would I even want to filch anything?! And you don't even have a right to say that! I mean, I could call the police right now since you just almost killed me! Like, killed me! And how do I know that YOU are not a thief, you stupid-"

"My, my!"

All three of them whipped around suddenly to another voice, this time a bit more low though. Allen blinked in surprise as a man with gray afro-ish hair with giant thick rimmed glasses stood there, shaking his head. He let out a sigh and spoke in an unhappy voice. "Whats going on here?"

Kanda whipped his head around and glared at Allen. "She was trying to steal one of your paintings." he excused as Allen raised up both her hands.

"No I wasn't!" she cried as the old man blinked back at her. "I swear I had a letter to deliver and then your artwork was so pretty and I just got lost and I almost got killed by a guy with really weird hair and-"

The old man with the thick rimmed glasses let out another heavy sigh and shook his head sadly. "Why must my children act so horny?" he wondered out loud.

Yes. Why?

* * *

Tiedoll was an old man around 50 or so, with gray hair that was almost like an afro and red-rimmed glasses that geeks usually wore. To say the truth, Allen was almost surprised when she found out that this was Cross's apparent friend. She hadn't expected him to be so…casual. And weren't rich people supposed to act different as well?

Allen glanced at the Tiedoll man, who was now humming a song while eating a cupcake. Seriously. This was totally not what she had expected.

"If you want to hum its fine, but can it please not be a Lenalee Lee song?"

The clown guy called from across the room with a tint of annoyance in his voice. Apparently his name was Daisya-she had heard Froi Tiedoll call him that earlier.

"What's wrong with Lenalee?" Tiedoll seemed offended as he turned to his adoptive son. "She has a great voice." he protested.

"And boobs." Daisya added quickly, but obviously everyone in the room found that to be unnecessary.

"And the jail has great food." Kanda said dryly. Daisya rolled his eyes at his brother and muttered something that Allen couldn't hear very well. She knew that it wasn't something very polite though, and she didn't even want to know.

"So…" Tiedoll said, suddenly remembering that there was still someone at their house, listening to their retarded conversations. "You said you had a letter to give to me from Cross?"

Allen let out a sigh of happiness. Finally. She thought that he would never ask. They had all sat in his office for twenty minutes due to explanations and introductions. Not that she cared who these people were. It had taken her forever to explain to them that she wasn't trying to steal anything and had only gotten lost in a freaking huge estate. But all of them, especially Kanda, looked skeptical until the chauffer man from earlier had come to her rescue and explained what had happened. Of course after that she had to apologize like twenty times to tell them that she was just looking at the paintings on the walls and wasn't plotting anything. Then after that, Tiedoll had laughed and she was dragged into his huge office to tell him why she was here. Also for some reason, his adoptive sons Kanda and Daisya came along as well just for no real point at all. Daisya had kept asking her why her hair was white and Kanda just said "Che" every five seconds, so she wasn't exactly having the time of her life right now.

"Here you go." She handed the envelope in her hands over to Tiedoll, who took it with a raised eyebrow. This was taking a really long time.

Tiedoll took the envelope into his hands and stared at it for five seconds. Then he opened it messily, shredding the envelope to pieces in Allen's surprise. Seriously…he didn't actually seem like the man who owned this mansion.

"Oh?" Tiedoll blinked in surprise as he took out a red leather diary with a lock on it. "Are you sure that this is what Cross wanted to give to me?"

Allen stared back at the book in his hands dumbly for a moment. It was hard to believe that this was what her guardian actually wanted to give this old "Friend" of his, since she had never even seen what was inside of the envelope before until now.

"Um, yeah I guess." She answered uncertainly, staring at the gay-looking leather diary held in Tiedoll's hands. How was it possible that Cross even had a girlfriend, not to mention like, twenty?

Daisya snickered as he observed the scene. "Hilarious." He said with an almost-laugh. "It looks just like the one that Mia's father gave her from The Princess Diaries!"

Everybody was silent for a minute, just exchanging glances with each other and acting uncomfortable, until Kanda finally spoke. "And you would know because….?" He trailed off questioningly as Allen blinked at Daisya then at Kanda. Honestly, even if they were both adopted, it was hard to imagine that they were brothers. How did they manage to survive under the same roof without murdering each other if one of them seemed pretty antisocial and the other seemed to like…..erm…The Princess Diaries?

Tiedoll coughed. "Anyway," he said as he scanned over the diary quickly. "This seems to need a password in order to open it."

Allen scratched the back of her head. "Well," she said, "I think you're supposed to know the password, aren't you?"

"Oh right!" he said as he put a finger on his chin and thought hard for a moment. "Let see….what was it again…..?"

"How do you even know the password?" Daisya pointed out. "Did you and this Cross person exchange love notes or something before in that thing?"

Tiedoll glanced up at his son in shock. "Daisya!" he exclaimed in surprise. "What in the quackers are you talking about? Cross was an old friend of mine, and what do you mean by love notes?"

Allen fiddled with the sleeve of her jacket uncomfortably as she glanced up at Kanda, who was standing in the corner of the office, glaring at the two of them with his arms crossed. Clearly he didn't seem to enjoy it when his family acted like this, but well….at least he HAD a family to hate. She didn't even a have a family to complain about, and the only person she hated was nobody related to her. It was just Cross, and he didn't act like a part of her family much.

Clink! Her thoughts were interrupted when the sudden sound of a lock being opened was heard. "YES!" Tiedoll jumped up a bit in joy. "I knew it!"

"Che." Said Kanda as he unfolded his arms and walked towards the door. "Why the hell am I even here?"

Tiedoll nodded in agreement. "Yes, Yu. Why are you even here? Go do what you were doing before you ran into Miss Allen Walker here….what were you doing again?"

Kanda didn't bother looking at Allen as he turned the knob. "I was practicing Kendo." He answered as he opened the door and left the office.

Tiedoll frowned for a minute. "Kendo?" he called as he left. "Yu, I told you to stop practicing that stuff!"

"Shutup!" Allen flinched as she heard the long haired guy call before he slammed the door. "And stop calling me Yu!"

"Yu?" the white-haired girl blinked in confusion after Kanda left. "Whos Yu?"

Tiedoll sighed as he flipped through the pages of the red diary. "Yu Kanda is his name." the old man answered as he tried to stop Daisya from peeking over his shoulder. "But everybody just calls him Kanda."

Allen blinked some more. "Oh." She said flatly. She didn't say it out loud, but she could see why everybody just called him Kanda. If you're name was you, would you let everybody else that wasn't you call you you even though it was confusing and you wouldn't know if they were calling you as in you or somebody else that wasn't you?

"Lemme read it!" Daisya, who was still in the room for some reason, cried as he tried to snatch the diary away from Tiedoll's hands. The old man just turned around and read the diary in secret while trying to pry his adoptive son away from his arms.

"So…" said Allen as she watched the two of them wrestle. She still had homework to do, dammit! "Is it okay if I leave now?"

Tiedoll, who wasn't listening to her, widened his expression in surprise as he read the diary. "Oh my!" he just said without answering. "Oh, really?"

"Stop talking to that thing!" Daisya hissed as he tried to free himself from Tiedoll's arm.

"Oh my." Tiedoll said again as he looked up from the diary and snapped it shut. Daisya rolled his eyes as he went over to the other side of the room and plopped himself onto the couch when he realized that there was no way to read the letter.

"Um." said Allen, feeling awkward just sitting there. "So can I go now?"

And never see your faces again? She thought but of course didn't say out loud.

Tiedoll scratched the back of his head uncertainly as he placed the red diary on his desk and locked it shut. "Well…." He began, not sure where to start. Because really, where COULD he start? "You see…." He said again to Allen's confused blinks. "Um…."

"Stop acting like a damn clown!" Daisya hissed in annoyance. Funny how he said that when he was the one dressed like one. "What is it? Did Cross confess his true feelings to you? Don't fucking say it if you can't, because I don't care if you're actually gay!"

Tiedoll ignored his son. Allen guessed it was probably because he was used to it. "So what is it that you need to tell me?" she wanted to know as Tiedoll fiddled with his hands. "I mean….it couldn't be that bad could it?"

Tiedoll shrugged. "Well, Allen." He said as he looked up at the ceiling. Because the ceiling was just so interesting, you know. "Its not too bad I guess, and well, since you live with him, you should know what he's like and everything….."

Allen stared at the Tiedoll man. "Just say it please."

"Um…alright…." He said. "Well you see, Cross owns me a lot of……money."

Allen gulped. She could see where this was headed to.

Froi Tiedoll continued on. "So he has debts to pay back to me and well….."

"How much?" Allen demanded. She wasn't even sure that she wanted to know though.

"Ten thousand." Tiedoll answered and Allen felt her knees go week. But well….since you were supposed to be optimistic and all that crap, at least it wasn't one million.

"So," said Tiedoll with a little cough. "He promised before that he would pay me back, so he says in the letter that you're the one that's going to be doing it."

Allen almost fainted even though it wasn't even that surprising. "Oh." She said weakly. "I mean….well….yeah. I could have guessed. I mean…its Cross after all." She gave out a little laugh but it came out more like a whimper.

"So….yes. You have to work to pay me back ten thousand dollars." Tiedoll concluded as Allen tried to see him clearly. For some reason he seemed blurry.

"Oh….okay." she managed to choke out. "Well I guess I just need another job then…I mean…..I have to pay back all of the OTHER debts anyway so getting another job at maybe a grocery store wouldn't make that much of a difference….."

"No." Tiedoll said and Allen blinked up at him in surprise.

"No?" she echoed.

"No." Tiedoll gave out a little smile. "No grocery store needed."

Allen scratched her head in confusion. "Then what do you mean?" she demanded.

Tiedoll smiled warmly. "You'll work here. In the Tiedoll estate. As a servant."

* * *

Kanda almost dropped his sword as somebody's scream echoed through the entire house. What the fuck….? The long haired teen narrowed his eyes as he took another clean swing with his Katana. He knew that Tiedoll could act womanly sometimes but that scream was just a bit too….feminine. Which just proved that Tiedoll was turning more womanly every minute.

Kanda took another angry swing with mugen at the tree branch and stopped for a moment to pant for breath. He sort of wondered what that white haired girl was doing at their house and why she had a letter from Cross to deliver, but then decided he could care less. Well, it was true. He didn't really give a crap about anything, especially not a random person with a bad hairstyle and screwed up face. Honestly….what was with the scars on her face? They almost looked too…_perfect _to be actual scars that you would get from tripping over an apple or something while running across a gravel field. And why the hell was she even wearing gloves? Did she cut herself or something and try to hide it from her parents? She did seem a bit weirdly dressed, so maybe she was punk or something. But why would punks cut themselves? Didn't emos do that? And why the fuck was he trying to tell the difference between a punk and an emo?

"Shit." Kanda swore under his breath as something vibrated. He dug into his pocket and pulled out his cellphone, which was now ringing the most boring ring tone ever. Yes it was the typical horrible beep beep beep sound that nobody used except for him….because well…it was his phone? Like, seriously! What kind of a ring tone did you expect from Kanda? Lady Ga Ga? "Yeah?" Kanda answered in his deep voice. "What?"

"Kaaannndaaaa!" a rather annoying voice groaned on the other end of the line. Goddammit. He should have known that it was her.

"What?" he hissed impatiently. "And how the hell did you even get my number?"

"Um," Lenalee said. "You gave it to me, remember? God you're stupid."

"Then stop talking to me if I'm that stupid." Kanda replied. "Goodbye." He was just about to press the end button when the popstar panicked with a yell.

"Wait!" she screamed as Kanda almost dropped his phone to cover his ears. He never knew why he didn't just hang up quickly, because talking to her was quite torture-ish. "I have something to tell you. Um, two things, actually."

Kanda glared at a ladybug that had placed itself on his sword. "What?" He demanded. "This better be quick.

Lenalee let out a sigh of relief. "Okay." She said. "So did you read Star magazine lately? You know, the newest issue? The October one?"

Kanda shook his sword as the ladybug opened it's wings and flew away, landing somewhere else. On top of his damn ponytail. "No." he answered as he shook his head, trying to get the ladybug off. "Why would I read that?"

Lenalee pouted on her side of the conversation. "Well, it's a good thing you didn't." she sighed. "Because oh my god, Road Camelot beat me in Who Wore It Better. Like, you know what Who Wore it Better is right? I mean, since you don't seem to know anything. Well anyway, if you've paid much attention to magazines at all, you'd know that I've never once in my glamorous life lost in that category. I always beat all the other stars that I'm up against since my style is just so awesome. And Road Camelot comes around and all the readers pick her. I mean, damn! I knew I should have matched up that white shirt with a bit more bold jewelry, like god! What was I thinking? And this is so totally my stylist's fault since I told him to add on something shiny or glittery or whatever since I was wearing one of those white shirts and he was like, no! You look fine! And you know what? I actually don't look fine, otherwise Road Camelot wouldn't have beat me in Who Wore It Better, and-"

"What was the other thing you wanted to tell me?" Kanda interrupted. He had barley heard what she had said, since he busy watching the ladybug, who had now placed itself onto a leaf.

"Were you even listening?" Lenalee groaned in frustration. "You know what? Like, whatever. Nobody seems to care, not even my stylist. He said it was just a magazine poll and oh yeah! My concert is on Saturday night! You're coming, right?"

Kanda remained silent. "No." he said as he took a swing at the ladybug, who fluttered away before it could get sliced to pieces.

"What?" Lenalee sounded shocked. "You're not? I gave you front row tickets, and you know what? All the tickets are like sold out! How can you not come?"

Kanda sat down onto the grass of the huge garden in the Tiedoll estate tiredly. Godammit, he didn't even give a shit about her concert. "Oh." He just said. "Well I don't think I can make it."

"Excuses!" Lenalee yelled. "All lies! You better come! If you don't I'll…I'll…."

Kanda almost wanted to _laugh_. "You'll what?" he challenged the famous popstar. "Give me a Chanel purse?"

Lenalee almost snickered. "No." she answered. "I'll create a scan-dal. Get it? A scandal. With you. And your face will be posted on every magazine."

Kanda swore silently. If he was involved in a scandal with Lenalee Lee then Tiedoll would surely kill him…..no. He would kill _himself_. A scandal with a popstar was probably the worst thing that could happen to his career, not that he cared about his career. But Tiedoll surley did. And he didn't want to upset the old man even though he already had the other night.

"And besides…" Lenalee said in a tiny voice. "I would be really happy if you came, alright? Just…come. Please."

Kanda let out a sigh. He had just lost to that stupid girl. "Fine, I'll fucking come to your fucking concert." He swore, giving up. "You better not be seen with me though, understand?"

Lenalee blinked but of course Kanda couldn't see. "What?" she whined. "Why not? I mean, just come backstage and tell that you know me and stuff and they'll probably let you in."

Kanda snorted. "Very believable." He said. "And I know Obama and they'll let me in the White House."

"Well, just….whatever…okay? Call me when you get there and I'll send someone to go find you. But you better come, okay?"

Kanda glared at the ladybug, which looked like it was daring him to catch it. "Fine." He said, ignoring the bug. "But if you invite Tiedoll, then I'm going to murder you." And he really meant it when he said that. Because that old man could sing a Lenalee Lee song for endless weeks after hearing one of them, especially that one called….what was it again? Oh yeah-Crystallization.

Lenalee just laughed. "Don't worry about it." She said, sounding a lot happier now that Kanda had agreed to go to her concert. "Well yup, that's about it. See you on Saturday night then!"

Kanda sighed. "Bye." He said and pressed the end button as Lenalee smiled to herself.

And why was she she smiling? Well, it was probably because she had lied, since that WASN'T about it. There was something else that she hadn't told him, because she was afraid that if she had then her head would have been cut off by now.

Lenalee smirked as she put her phone back into her pocket.

Yes, thats right.

She had invited Froi Tiedoll.

* * *

:D

Its crystallization baby!


	4. Sweet Dreams, what a beautiful nightmare

HElllooss again! YAY!!! CHAPTER 4 is finally up!!! WOOT!!!

lol, sorry if I took a long time to update. I actually wrote this chapter two weeks ago but it was horriblish terrible so I had to delete all of it and write a brand new chapter!!! WOOT! Look how serious and passionate I am about this! haha, so yeah, this chapter us basically about Allen going to Tiedoll's house once again to start her new job. Anyway, I'm not too sure if this chapter was a bit confusing or not, so you can tell me in the form of a nice review instead! THAnkS! :D

Oh right, thanks again to the people who alert/fav/reviewed. YAYS!!! YOU GUYS GET INVISIBLE IPODS!

* * *

"WAALLLKKER!"

The British kid spun around instantly at the sound of her last name and raised an eyebrow immediately when she saw that it was Lou Fa running towards her with hands waving frantically in the air.

Almost letting out a groan, Allen Walker paused for a moment to wait for her friend even though she clearly didn't want to, since she was in quite a hurry to get to somewhere at that moment. Somewhere that she certainly didn't want to go to, since the place included a creepy old man with glasses, a guy that dressed like a clown, and a dark haired teen whose facial expression always told people to go throw themselves out of a window.

"What, Lou Fa?" Allen asked the Chinese girl with huge glasses, who was smiling at her toothily. The bell had just rung and it was around 3 o' clock in the afternoon. School had just ended and Allen obviously couldn't waste any time hanging around the hallways, since today was the first day that she would be working as a slave in the Tiedoll household. Err, never mind. The correct word was servant. Yes, _servant_.

"Um, okay." Lou Fa said, pushing up her glasses. "So do you wanna like, hang out today or something? At my place?"

Allen instantly shook her head. She was used to rejecting offers like these-things like hanging out, watching movies, or having sleepovers was never on her list of things to do. Sadly, she didn't really count as a normal teenager, since the things that she was more used to doing were stuff like working till midnight, collecting empty beer bottles from the living room, running away from debt collectors, and trying to remove her hands from Timcampy's teeth. It was probably the main reason why she wasn't too popular, since she never had the time to talk to people or make new friends, and she didn't really care either. Her life was way to busy to make _friends_, so she had never even actually considered it and would probably never either.

"What, you can't come?!" Lou Fa nearly shouted, jolting Allen out of her thoughts. "WHHHHHY?"

The white-haired girl let out a sigh. "Well, if my guardian didn't owe a man named Tiedoll ten thousand dollars, I guess I'd have a slightly better life even though it would still be hell since he still owes a bundle to who knows where." Allen shook her had sadly as she went on, not even caring that she was blabbering. "But nooo, since he DOES need to pay back the debts for Tiedoll, I'm stuck working at his house as a bloody _slave_ who cleans their toilets until they're so damn shiny you can see your own crap's reflection in 'em. That's bloody _why_, Lou Fa."

Lou Fa's mouth sort of dropped open in shock as Allen finished her speech and left for the bus stop, leaving her to stand their alone and stare at her friend's bleach white hair. "Oh my god!" she stared at Allen, who was walking lifelessly across the green school grounds. "Walker, I can't believe you just said that!"

Allen stopped and turned around again at her Asian friend. "Cross's personality seems to be rubbing on me," she answered, "Because I bloody just _did_."

Lou Fa eyed the white-haired girl strangely. "Um, alright then, Walker." She seemed worried. "Are you sure you're okay? I mean…" she stared at Allen's face, which was full of scars. "I mean…you….don't….look too well."

Allen raised an eyebrow. "I feel fine." She replied and sighed for the twentieth time that day. "But I'm really quite…busy. Sorry Lou Fa-maybe some other time?"

The Asian girl nodded slowly. "Fine." She said. "And oh- what pages are we supposed to read over for Socials again?"

Allen stared up at the sky thoughtfully. "Page 267-273." She replied, remembering that she still had homework to do after. Oh, just blooming brilliant. More to add on to the pile of abuse. "Anyway, I have to go somewhere now." She said as she started to walk away from Lou Fa. "See you tomorrow."

Lou Fa gave out a helpless puff of air. "Bye, Walker." She muttered as the British girl made her way across the school grounds and towards the nearest bus stop. Allen had the bus route already figured out-there weren't any buses that went straight to Tiedoll's estate of course, but the 351 went straight towards that rich, snotty, neighborhood full of millionaires, so it would only take her about around 20 minutes or so to walk to that estate after getting off. If she could find her way there, that is.

Allen couldn't help furrowing her eyebrows together as she walked past the soccer field, where some guys who actually had school spirit were yelling and shouting as they kicked the ball to each other. The white-haired girl puffed out some air as she walked past them without bothering to look-it wasn't fair. There they were, at soccer practice having fun and sweating while she was on her way to become to a slave at a place where they probably already had twenty of them. Her eyebrows actually frowned when she realized this point-the Tiedoll estate already had billions of servants, so why did _she_ had to become one of them too? Surely they didn't just need another one to make everything perfect? And since she had to pay back the debts anyway for Cross, why couldn't she just earn the money from her other jobs and give Tiedoll the money instead of working at his place? It almost didn't make…sense. And the funny thing was, Allen didn't even realize this earlier, when Tiedoll had explained to her how things were going to go from there on. The white-haired girl groaned as she remembered how two days ago Tiedoll had told her the horrible news, and she was suddenly pulled into the evil flashback of doom.

_"Wait." She had said. "You want me to work here. At this place? As a person who cleans your toilets?" Allen demanded. She had been so shocked that she had started to speak very unBritishly. _

_Tiedoll sort of raised his eyebrows, but the old man nodded anyway. "Er, yes." He answered nervously. "Starting tomorrow you'll come to the Tiedoll estate to work here, and you can pay off your guardian's debts this way."_

_"TOMORROW?!" Allen yelled in surprise, startling Daisya, who was still in the room listening to their conversation since he was such a loser had nothing else to do. _

_Tiedoll nodded slowly. "Yes tomorrow." He said. "Is there anything wrong with that?"_

_"I have school." Allen answered lifelessly. _

_Tiedoll smiled. "Oh, you'll come after school of course." He said much to Allen's dismay. "Or do you have a problem with that schedule?"_

_Allen gulped. "Um….no. Not really." She replied. "Isn't it a bit….random though?"_

_Tiedoll shrugged. "Wouldn't it be best to get the work done quickly?" he asked her. "You wouldn't want to start paying me back until you're sixty, now would you?"_

_Allen sighed. Oh, if only she had the guts to say "Fuck you, Cross." But of course she didn't, so she just answered Tiedoll. "I don't think I'll be able to make to sixty." She said and shook her head quickly afterwards. "I mean um, sure. Fine! I'll start tomorrow. But I'll have to quit a job or something, since I have no time to handle four jobs."_

_Tiedoll waved his hands dismissively. "You go do that." He replied, not seeming to care much. "As long as you come tomorrow after school everything should be fine."_

_Allen stared back at the man. "Yes…I'm sure everything will be fine." She said flatly, but her mind had only been filled with flooding doubt. _

The White-haired girl sighed as she was pulled out of the memory and into reality again. Honestly, becoming a servant at the Tiedoll estate? What would she even _do_? Scrub Tiedoll's shoes and wax them a hundred times? Or help figure out what Daisya was going to wear for Halloween, since he already looked like he was dressed up? Was that what a servant did all day? Because that sounded totally horribly extremely boring and she would have rather died than-

"WATCH OUT!" a sudden shriek jolted Allen out of her thoughts but when she whipped around the impact had already had her in the face, forcing her to stumble and fall onto the ground in pain.

"Oh crap!" A bunch of soccer players shouted and screamed as they came running towards her quickly with worried looks on their faces when they realized where their soccer ball had gone flying to. Some of the players stared at her in shock while a few others began inspecting and crawling all over her when they scurried over from across the other side of the field.

"Are you okay?!"

"You hurt?"

"OH EM GEE!"

"At least it wasn't a bowling ball."

"Should I get you to the nurse?"

"Peace out!"

Allen slowly opened her eyes and touched her cheek as she tried to figure out what had just happened. "Oh, bugger!" the girl cried as she saw the soccer ball that was lying on the grassy area not many centimeters away from her.

"We're so sorry!" some gay guy on the soccer team screamed. "Does it hurt?"

"No, not really." Allen mumbled in annoyance as she got up from the cement floor. Really, getting hit on the face by a stupid soccer ball wasn't even that much of deal-at least, not when your guardian's name was Cross and he did a lot of strange things with guns and knives most of the time.

"I'LL TAKE HER TO THE NURSE!" some guy announced suddenly and when Allen glanced at up at the owner of the loud voice she almost groaned for some reason. Maybe it was just because his hair color was the same shade of red as Ronald McDonald's shoes. Or maybe it was because he looked like he was trying too hard to become a pirate. Either way, she slapped her hand onto her forehead when she realized that Lavi was smiling at her with twinkles in his bright emerald eye.

Oh. _Double _bugger.

"You're on the soccer team?" she said aloud, not really meaning it as a question. Then she wanted to call herself stupid for even bothering to ask. Of course out of everybody,_ Lavi _would be on the soccer team since he was just totally sporty and spirited like that! Geez!

The school's hottie answered anyway though. "Yup!" he said cheerfully. "And oh Allen-I'll take you to the office and go get you some ice. Sorry about that!"

The girl closed her eyes for a moment to stop the dizziness, since she had been hit in the head quite hard. "No, it's okay!" she told him but he just made a pout. "No, seriously. I really have to get going to somewhere or else I'm reallllly going to be late-"

"BUT YOUR'RE INJURED!" Lavi screeched suddenly, startling everybody on the team. "No, Allen! You have to come with me right now to the nurse's office! Like, right _now_, dude!"

"Erm, but I'm honestly fine and I-"

Before Allen could finish her sentence, the redhead had already grabbed her hand and was pulling her back towards the school much to her dismay. And the worst part of it was she couldn't even pull away, since his grip was like iron. "Lavi, stop acting like this!" she almost hissed at the redhead loudly. "You're going to give me Wonka's cramps!"

Lavi almost burst out laughing when she said that. "Oh I love your Britishness!" the redhead almost giggled much to Allen's fright and he continued to pull her away from the field and away from her destination-the bus stop. "Be back in 10 minutes!" he called out to the rest of his teammates and the soccer coach, who was nodding his head and checking his watch at the same time.

"Lavi!" Allen said loudly as she tried to pry his hands away from hers. "Honestly! Let go of me! I'm fine! And I'm going to be late-"

The redhead just continued to walk though-in fact he was skipping now. "Eh?" he wondered out loud. "Late? Late for what?"

"For a freaking job at a bloody mansion filled with idiots!" Allen huffed out angrily, surprising herself and the guy who wasn't letting go of her hand at the same time. She couldn't believe that she had just said that-maybe it was because she was really brassed off by that eyepatch wearing guy who thought he was doing her a favor by dragging her back to the nurse's office even though he was just making her late for that dumb job of hers.

"What?" Lavi finally turned around and stared at her in the eye. "What job? You have a job? What are you talking about?" he asked, causing Allen to roll her eyes in exasperation at him. "You have to tell me all about this while the nurse is getting you some ice, alright? I wanna know everything about you!"

Allen almost glared at Lavi and his pirate looks -_almost_, but didn't-since she was Allen Walker and not Yu Kanda, who seemed to have a habit of glaring at everybody and everything that they said. "Lavi." She said, staring at him. "_Why_?" she wanted to know, forgetting all of the sudden that Tiedoll wasn't going to be too happy with her not arriving on time, since there was only two minutes left until the bus arrived and the next bus wasn't until half an hour later.

Lavi just smiled at her cheerfully. "Well, Allen." He grinned, still holding onto her hand. "Its not that I wanna barge into your life or anything, but the thing is….well…"

"What?" asked Allen dumbly.

"Well…" Lavi shrugged and smiled toothily again. "The thing is, I have a feeling that we're going to become like, _best_ friends."

"...." Allen stared at the guy standing before her blankly, who was grinning at her happily for some reason. She had nothing to say to him. Well…what _could_ she say? It was honestly just so random, and she suddenly wondered why he was even so popular in the first place. In London, people who acted like him would definitely have been in the mentally challenged classroom at school, that was for sure.

"And," the redhead continued on, not seeming to notice that he had just ruined his reputation for coolness there, "I think we'll be the most awesome friends ever. I mean, like, we'll have _so_ much fun sipping cups of tea and we could totally play Harry Potter and-"

Allen swallowed something down her throat suddenly as Lavi ranted on about all the wonderful things they were going to do together, fear perhaps. Either way, she was pretty sure that the rest of her life wasn't going to go so well anymore, especially with Lavi acting like this, even though her life already had many retards in it. But at least there was one last thing to be optimistic about-her life couldn't get any worse than this.

Or could it?

* * *

When Kanda walked into his adoptive father's office with a pissed off look on his face as usual, the first thing he heard was the annoying high-pitched sound of his stepbrother's voice turning into a complaint. "I don't even think she's gonna come." He heard Daisya whine as he dropped his black bag onto the ground and stepped into the modern looking room filled with Tiedoll's own paintings. Both men were in the room for some reason-Tiedoll was reading a book that looked like something he would probably burn after the first sentence and Daisya was sprawled across the black leather couch lazily with a yawn forming over his mouth.

"Yo, Kanda!" His stepbrother waved at him after noticing his presence and smiled lopsidedly at the other. "So how was school today? Did you guys learn how human reproduction system works?"

Kanda tried to ignore Daisya but ended up scrunching his face up in disgust anyway. "Of course that's the first thing you ask me when I step into this room, fag." He hissed, extremely annoyed at the unfunny jokes that the clown always made. Honestly, if they were even at least a bit _funny, _he wouldn't have swore at his brother every 5 seconds. But unfortunately, everything that hopped out of Daisya's mouth was either stupid or had something to do with boobies, so he respected that guy the same amount as a frog. On the other hand though, Kanda didn't find too many things to be funny, so maybe that was why everything his brother said just made him mad.

"Calm down, Yu." Tiedoll said without glancing up from his book, causing Kanda to twitch when the old man called him by his first name. Oh yeah. And there was his adoptive father too. He had forgotten about him for a second there. "You better be nice to Mrs. Walker when she arrives."

Daisya let out a long sigh. "_If _she arrives." He said gloomily, causing Kanda to raise an eyebrow. "I seriously think she's not coming though."

"Who's Mrs. Walker?" Kanda inquired, looking back and forward at Tiedoll and Daisya in confusion. "Don't tell me another one of Lenalee's fans got ahold of our address like last time."

"Don't ever mention that again." Tiedoll said sharply, remembering the time when somehow, one of the popstar's fans found out that she was connected to them and began screaming wildly and throwing stink bombs at the garden like a maniac. Unfortunately Tiedoll had just happened to be in the garden, painting a portrait of a bush when the smell of toxic stinky egg gas poisoned him in the nose and they had to call an ambulance and the police. Honestly, what the hell was the point of hiring security guards if they couldn't even get rid of a damn fan girl, then?

"I won't." Kanda answered slowly, staring at the old man. No matter how much of an ass he was, he knew that Tiedoll got frightened whenever it came to that_ incident_, so he just closed his mouth and remained silent about that subject. "Who's Mrs. Walker, then?"

Daisya rolled his eyes in the corner and shook his head. "God you're stupid." He muttered under his breath even though Kanda's IQ was actually higher than his, since all he did was kick around a soccer ball all day and make perverted jokes. "Um, Allen Walker? Remember? That white-haired girl who got lost in our house like, yesterday? The one that's kind of cute but also weird looking at the same time?"

Kanda furrowed his eyebrows together. Allen Walker? He had of course remembered that a white-haired girl with a British accent had come to their mansion the other day to steal a painting and had failed, but he had no clue that her name was Allen Walker and that she would be coming to their house. "Wait." He said suddenly. 'Why the hell is her name Allen and why is she coming here again?"

Tiedoll chuckled, still seemed to be enhanced by the book that he was reading. "The name Allen suits her." He smiled down at the pages that he was looking at. "I like it."

Kanda crossed his arms, unsatisfied after not having his question answered. "So did you say that she was coming here or something?" he demanded.

"Yes." Tiedoll replied in a bored tone.

"_Why_?"

The old man finally glanced up from the book that he was reading and smiled a Kanda warmly like he usually did. "Well," he said, pushing up his red-rimmed glasses, "Because Allen is going to be the newest servant at our estate, of course!"

The dark haired teen shut up for a second.

Servant?

At.

Their.

Estate?

"…" Kanda stared back at the old man with piercing blue eyes and tried to figure out something to say to that. Did the old man just tell him that the old lady named Allen Walker was going to work at their mansion as a fucking _servant_? Did he even hear right? Because he was pretty sure that he had missed something there, clearly. "Wait a second." The Japanese teen almost furrowed his eyebrows together. "That cursed kid is going to work at our house as a servant?"

Tiedoll widened his eyes at his son innocently and pushed up his glasses. "Yes, Yu." He answered with a blink. "Is there anything wrong with that?"

Kanda narrowed his eyes at Tiedoll, who was tapping his fingers on his desk impatiently now. Seriously…that moyashi was coming to work at their house? The dark haired teen frowned and tried to make sense of what was going on. The only problem was though, it didn't make a _bucket_ of fucking sense, since usually, most of the people who wanted a job at their house had to apply and then wait for months or so in order to get a job as a servant or a bodyguard at their house, and even after proving their skills flawless there was still a fifty percent chance that they wouldn't be hired, because Tiedoll was extremely cautious about the people that came in and out of their house. He was, after all, the president of Eden-which meant millionaire- so he couldn't just hire random people or hobos that lived on the streets to be an employee. After all, who knew what hobos did in giant mansions? So with that being said, how the fuck did the Allen Walker kid manage to come to their house yesterday and find a job two days later? That was hardly possible, unless somehow, two months had already passed and Kanda had just slept through it all.

"Is there something wrong, Yu?" Tiedoll inquired suddenly, causing Kanda to jump out of his thoughts and glance up from the floor. The teen looked at his adoptive father, who had his head tilted to one side and was gazing back at him curiously.

"Don't call me that," Kanda replied in an even voice, "And yes, there is something wrong." Tiedoll gave the man a questioning look and got a suspicious glare in return from Kanda instead. "Why the hell is Allen working as a servant here?" he demanded and meant it.

"Because she gets to wear a maid uniform and I will enjoy it greatly." Daisya answered quickly but burst out laughing five seconds later, causing Tiedoll to roll his eyes at the clown. Kanda ignored his stepbrother for once instead of stabbing him with a sword and waited impatiently for Tiedoll to answer his question.

"There will not be a maid uniform involved." Tiedoll gave his son a warning look and Daisya suddenly whined loudly.

"Aww, there won't?!" he cried, almost begging. "Damn it, and I wanted her to wear one of those poofy skirts!"

"No, Daisya, that will not be happening and-"

"Could you stop being a part of his disgusting conversation and just answer my fucking question already?" Kanda hissed, unable to control his mood once again in front of Tiedoll. The old man clearly didn't like it when the dark-haired teen talked so aggressively like that, but sometimes Kanda just couldn't help it even though he tried to be more polite in front of the old man. At least he knew to show some respect even though it didn't really work anyway, since he said fuck after every two sentences or so. "Honestly, are you avoiding my question or something?"

Tiedoll coughed and looked down at his book, managing to escape Kanda's gaze. "What in the world are you talking about?" the old man mumbled quietly, not bothering to glance up. "What's wrong with her working here? She owes her master's debts."

"So why can't she just pay you back, then?" Kanda pointed out. "I mean, debt means money, right? So why the hell does she have to work here?"

Tiedoll finally looked up from his book. "Daisya." He said. "How was soccer today?"

The clown guy shrugged while Kanda frowned and studied Tiedoll carefully. He had also noticed that-for some reason- Tiedoll was avoiding his question AND his gaze, not that there was anything so secret that he couldn't even give an answer about. Or was there? Why the hell wouldn't he be able to answer a question about a servant that would be coming to their house?

Kanda narrowed his eyes at the old man, who was now coughing desperately even though he really didn't even have swine flu. Clearly Tiedoll was trying to get out of answering the question, which didn't make sense at all. Something wasn't right, but it wasn't something that Kanda could figure out right there and now. It was going to take some time to wonder why his adoptive father was acting like a mime, because Tiedoll was acting very unlike himself at that moment and it definitely had something to do with the servants. Or maybe even that Allen Walker kid. Yes, maybe there was information that he didn't know about on that moyashi, so why couldn't the old man just tell him why the fuck he was acting so strange and-

"Eh-hem." a sudden voice stimulated Kanda to whip around and glare at whoever it belonged to, but standing at the door to the office was only Rex, one of the servants at their house.

Froi closed the book that he was reading and stood up, finally. "Is she here?" he wanted to know.

Rex nodded. "Yes." He answered. "Mrs. Walker has arrived."

"Finally." Daisya said, rolling his eyes and hopping up from where he was slung across the couch. Kanda raised an eyebrow at his stepbrother. Why the hell was he so excited about the cursed kid's arrival? And didn't he notice at all that something was wrong here, that Tiedoll was doing something that he usually didn't do, such as letting a person work at their house even though he usually never did because they had strict rules around?

Tiedoll followed the servant out of his office and Daisya followed after him, but before he could get out he was stopped by Kanda with a hiss. "Hey." The antisocial teen stopped him with the glare of his sapphire eyes. "Did you not notice at all?"

Daisya smiled back at the other. "Notice what?" he asked.

Kanda stared back at him dumbly. Honestly…was this fucking circus freak actually retarded or did he just act like this because it was another one of his supposedly funny jokes? Kanda shook his head. "Nevermind." He told him and stalked off back into the room, placing himself on the black leather couch in annoyance.

His stepbrother gave him an odd look and jumped out of the office happily, impatient to see Allen Walker much to Kanda's barf coming out of his throat. Unbelievably, Daisya seemed to fall in love with anything that was female and that moved, even if it happened to be a creepy punk elderly lady with red scars dripping down her face and a star tattoo near her forehead. It wasn't exactly that she was hideous or anything, it was just because she looked like she was dressed up for Halloween, even though it had already passed. And no, Kanda had definitely NOT gone trick-or-treating.

"Oh, Allen!" the teen heard Tiedoll coo in that loud voice of his suddenly and he twitched his ears, not because he was interested but because he was well….he was…_che_. And since Tiedoll's office was really close to the front door, all of that welcoming chatter could be heard and Kanda listened intently to the conversation.

"HEY ALLEN, WHATS UP?!" just then with an even louder voice, Daisya's scream echoed through the entire mansion even though their house was huge.

Then he hear a mumble that probably belonged to Allen, so Kanda sat up straight and perked up his ears to hear what the moyashi was saying, but since she had such a quiet voice he couldn't hear a single thing. That pissed him off of course, so he got up from the couch and stomped out of the room to see what the hell was going on. Oh screw pretending to not care, he didn't give a damn about Daisya, Tiedoll, or that cursed moyashi-

"Oof!" a sudden small cry came out of a tiny figure as he stomped out of Tiedoll's office angrily. Glancing down, he saw a familiar face rub her head, and immediately his expression turned into a glare. "Watch where you're going, kid." He hissed at the white-haired girl, who was rubbing her head in pain.

Allen Walker glanced up and sort of took a tiny tumble backwards when she met the cold stare of the teen standing before her. Then after a few seconds, she laughed to his surprise. "Kid?" she echoed. "What are you, like 3 years older than me?"

Kanda snorted and glanced down at the girl in annoyance. "Che, thief." He sneered. "I'm eighteen. You're eight. Do your fucking math right and you'll figure out that our age difference is way more than 3, idiot."

"I'm not eight!" Allen puffed out some angry air and looked like she was about to smack him, but before anything violent could happen Tiedoll interrupted the tension with a very fake cough.

"Eh-hem." He said loudly, causing everyone turn around and stare. "I see that you have already met Allen, yes?"

Kanda crossed his arms. "I was the one who discovered her sneaking around our house in the first place, stupid." he grumbled without bothering to glance at the British girl who was glaring back at him.

"I wasn't sneaking around in your house!" Allen protested but of course he wasn't listening. "And what, do you think I_ want_ to be here or something you-"

Tiedoll raised up a hand. "That's enough." He let out a sigh and turned to Kanda. "Yu, apologize to her."

Kanda turned around and stared at the old man in disbelief. "Apologize?" he cocked an eyebrow. "I'll apologize to moyashi after she _leaves_."

Now it was Allen's turn to raise an eyebrow. "Moyashi?" she repeated and blinked at Kanda with her gray eyes. "What animal does that sound belong to?"

Kanda rolled his eyes while beside him his brother Daisya burst out in giggles. "Sorry, Allen." He laughed and then his expression turned into a smirk. "Mr. Kanda here likes to use random Japanese words in a while."

"Che." Kanda said as Allen released a long sigh. "Oh." She said, shaking her head understandingly. "I mean, yeah I get it now. If moyashi was supposed to be an insult, it would probably make me cry by now. But unfortunately I don't know what it means, so I'll just assume that it means My Love."

Kanda looked like he wanted to murder Allen on the spot, but before he could slice her to pieces with his katana Tiedoll interrupted once again by shaking his head sadly. "Oh, kids these days." He said depressingly with a sigh and turned to all three of them-with Kanda glaring murderously at Allen, the white-haired girl smirking back at him, and Daisya just in a laughing fit as always.

"Oh dear." Tiedoll said worriedly and finally his gaze stopped on Kanda, who was probably still thinking of ways to kill Allen without being caught. "Yu, you won't apologize, will you?"

Kanda shot him a look of disbelief. "Not even after a million light years." He hissed and stormed up the curly stairs angrily, leaving Allen to stare up at him in confusion. Right now he needed some peace-yes-peace would be quite nice right now-maybe he could practice new skills for mugen or something. After stomping up the stairs and walking past billions of rooms in a long wide hallway, he finally reached his own and slammed open the door. It wasn't that he hated the Allen Walker girl or anything, it was just that some part of her made him extremely annoyed for some reason. Maybe it was just the way she talked-with her stupid British accent that made him twitch every time she said something like jolly or blimey. Or maybe her snowy white hair just really creeped him out. Honestly, how had she dyed her hair pure white? Now that it was mentioned, Kanda had noticed that even her _eyebrows _were white, which was completely insane. And she didn't even look too albino either-weren't albinos supposed to have pink eyes instead of cloudy gray ones? And why the hell did she always wear gloves? Just because she was going to be a servant at their house didn't mean that she had to be so dressed up, with the whole black and white clothing and white gloves.

Kanda released an angry breath of air and flung himself onto his bed-which the author couldn't describe because it was the most boring bed ever in the history of beds. The dark-haired teen folded his arms behind his head and stared up at the blank white ceiling. Weird. He couldn't recall any time when he had wondered so much about a single person, except for one time when he asked himself over and over again about how Daisya could be so stupid. Other than that though, this Allen Walker kid....Kanda let out a sigh. Why the hell did he even care so much? This was only the second time that he had met her, or the third if you counted their short encounter at Wal-Mart. So why the hell was he so angry over such a stupid reason?

Kanda plopped himself up from the bed and stared at the hourglass that was placed on his desk. He hadn't wanted the thing to be there-he was fine with nothing in his room, but Tiedoll had insisted him to have at least one decoration in his room since it was so plain. But seriously, it was probably the gayest decoration ever, since what was placed on his desk was an hourglass filled with a floating pink lotus. Yes, because normal guys have pink flowers sitting on their desks. Kanda stared at the design-oh well-it wasn't like he minded that much anyway. He had had that thing since he was very young, so there was at least some kind of a connection with that object, almost like kids being close with their stuffed animals. Apparently some old friend of Tiedoll's had given it to Kanda a long time ago, not that he could remember, and Tiedoll had just kept it as a token of appreciation.

The dark-haired teen frowned and looked past the hourglass. Sitting beside the pink lotus was a photo frame which consisted of a picture of him and Lenalee at the signing of her debut album. Don't get the wrong idea-it wasn't him who had wanted that thing to be there. It was that stupid popstar Lenalee Lee who had threatened to kick open his door (she had very strong kicks) if he didn't place that hideous picture beside his bed. God, there was definitely something wrong with Komui's sister- it was like she almost had multiple personality disorder.

Kanda turned back towards the bed and stared up at the ceiling. You could tell from the decorations in his room that, his life had always been pretty simple. The teen raised an eyebrow at the blank roof in front of his blue eyes. So why the fizzling fuck did he get the feeling that some things were never going to be the same again?

Kanda growled.

Life didn't make any fucking bit of sense.

* * *

"I'm terribly sorry that I'm late." Allen apologized quickly as she followed Tiedoll deeper into the house. She checked her watch instantly-she had arrived late by 40 minutes, which was really rather horrible. "Something came up and I just…" her voice trailed off. She didn't want to mention that on the way to the bus stop she had been hit in the head by a bloody soccer ball and one certain redhead had dragged her to the nurse's office by force even though she had yelled and cried and told everybody that she was fine. Oh, and the time spent at the nurse's office? That had just been bloody booming terrible. Allen almost groaned out loud when she remembered how Lavi kept talking about how they were going to become BFFS, even though he had billions of friends in and out of the school. Honestly…there had to be something wrong with that eye patch-wearing teenager. The only good thing about him was probably that he was rather attractive, but that was it.

"Really…?" Tiedoll muttered as they walked but he sounded skeptical. "Something came up?"

"Yeah." Allen replied truthfully. "I'm very, very, sorry."

Tiedoll flung his hands in a "whatever" sort of fashion and walked on ahead of the white-haired girl, who had to take multiple steps to keep up with him. "Um," she said as she followed behind him down the stairs of the mansion. "May I ask where we're going?"

Tiedoll turned his head to Allen and gave out a warm smile. "Oh, you'll see." He answered and kept walking down the stairs down into a deeper part of the house. Allen looked around nervously at all the paintings and portraits on the walls that seemed to be staring at her and wondered how freaking huge this house was. Seriously…you could probably get A LOT of exercise if you jogged just one lap around the estate, not to mention five.

After three more minutes or so, they finally arrived at a glass-covered room that had sunlight filtering in from all directions. Tiedoll halted to a stop and Allen stopped too behind him, wondering what was going on. "Allen." Tiedoll said with a smile on his face and pushed up his glasses. "I want you to meet someone."

The white-haired girl blinked and looked around the expensive-seeming room in confusion. Before she could ask "Who" though, a loud thump suddenly startled her from the back and she spun around immediately to see a fat man with black hair hop into the room with a big cheerful smile on his face.

"HI!!!" the guy practically screamed in her ear, causing her to flinch in surprise. "I'M CHAOJI HAN AND I'M THE HEAD OF ALL THE SERVANTS AT THIS HOUSE! WE'RE GOING TO HAVE SO MUCH FUN SCRUBBING THE TOILETS TOGETHER!"

The British girl stared at the_ huge _man standing before her with a smile on his mouth, except there was a piece of lettuce stuck on his teeth and she couldn't help but take a step back slowly.

"FROM NOW ON," Chaoji continued on happily in a screeching voice. He had black hair tied into a short stub at the back and was wearing a hideous shade of green, Allen had noticed. "I AM YOUR BOSS AND YOU HAVE TO FOLLOW MY ORDERS!"

Allen Walker widened her eyes and took a few more steps back. The fat man just blabbered on about the sanity of the house and the way to serve food but all she could do was glance at Tiedoll from the corner of her eye. The old man suddenly noticed and he turned his head and met Allen's stare with a warm gaze, causing a piece of the British girl to die. Did he not notice that there was something wrong with this man named Chaoji?!

"SO," the big man in green giggled and went on much to Allen's dismay. "LETS WORK TOGETHER FOR THE SAKE OF THIS HOME, ALRIGHT?!" as soon as he said that a hand was stuck out for the white-haired teen to shake, and she stared down at the huge hand, wondering how she had even gotten herself into this. Oh right-Cross Marian.

Allen sighed and shook Chaoji's hand, but almost felt a bone crack when his strong hand nearly crushed hers. "Hi-hii…" she answered weakly. "I'm-I'm Allen Walker."

"NICE TO MEET YOU!" Chaoji screeched in her face instantly and she almost wanted to puke, since his breath smelled like rotten eggs wrapped in hairy armpit sauce.

Allen groaned and covered her nose, receiving a confused stare from Chaoji. Oh dear god. This seriously left her no choice. She didn't want to choose that opinion, but clearly God didn't give her any other path and the only way that she could keep on living was to gamble her way out of this.

And by gamble, she meant literally.

* * *

lol, I made Chaoji the head of the servant department!!! Haha, I know that it would make much more sense if Chaoji was actually Kanda's brother or something, but I figured that a servant would suit him more, since he is just a loser and he fails at life. Sorry if you're a fan of Chaoji (which I doubt you are) but I really really hate that fattie, since he is just sooo....lame. lol, and I'm pretty sure alot of you guys think he isn't that great either! So thats why I made him a servant at Tiedoll's house! :D

And oh, thanks for reading and watch out for the next two chapters, because the four of them are going to meet soon! You know which four. ;)

So thanks again! MWWWAAAAAAA!!!!!!!! And oh it would also be quite nice if you review! Thankyas! :D

Chaoji: I LOVE SCRUBBING TOILETS!


	5. The Best Mistake I Ever Made

**READ THIS!:**

Hi guys! I wrote a pretty long chapter this time, so please take the time to read all of it-even the paragraphs that seem like you could drown in them, haha. Anyways, I was wondering what you guys think of reincarnation fics, because I might be writing one soon and I've put up a poll on my profile, so please take the time to vote or just let me know your opinion on reincarnation fics!

So yeah, thanks again for supporting this fic, and double thanks to the people who took the time to review!

_**WARNING**_: Allen gambles in this chapter. If you feel uncomfortable reading it please skip it over. lol. ;)

* * *

_**FIVE**_

"Alright," Chaoji said thoughtfully as he studied the girl standing before him carefully with his fingers resting below his chin. His pose made him look smart, but everyone knew that this huge man was far from it. In fact, even a worm was probably smarter than him-and he wasn't even intelligent enough to figure_ that _out. "So I think your uniform should be extra small. Like, how come you're so skinny?"

A white-haired girl called Allen Walker stood there with an uncomfortable expression on her face as she fiddled with the tips of her gloves. "I don't know." She answered uneasily, trying to stay as far away from the man as possible. She wasn't usually the type to judge people by their looks or erm…_size, _but since a certain smell that wasn't too pleasantly scented was poisoning her nose, she didn't exactly want to inhale any more of it in so the only choice was to take a few more steps back.

"Oh, whatever." Chaoji rolled his eyes dramatically and handed Allen Walker the bag which consisted of her servant uniform. The British girl took it with a dip of her head and she headed into the bathroom to change.

"Hurry Up!" Chaoji called as Allen quickly locked the door and started stripping out of her clothes. "We need to start cleaning right away!"

Allen let out a light sigh as she picked up the plastic bag and took out the servant uniform that she was going to wear from now on. The clothes seemed pretty normal at least-there was no maid uniform involved like in those weird animes that Lou Fa liked to watch, and she was thankful for it. Hurriedly she took off her shirt and replaced it by pulling the white shirt over herself. Outside she could still hear Chaoji tapping the floor with his feet impatiently even though she was just changing into her uniform, and she wondered how Tiedoll could be so evil as to leave her with a man like that. At first when she saw Tiedoll, she had thought that he was quite a nice person, but when he had brought her to the lower level of the house and introduced her to Chaoji and then left, she almost wanted to cry. It was just that sad. Couldn't he recognize the pleading looks that she had been giving him? Because she had been staring at Tiedoll the whole time that he had been introducing them to each other, and yet in the end the millionaire with the red-rimmed glasses had just smiled warmly and left her alone with Chaoji, who then began to decide what size uniform she needed even though she was clearly an extra small.

After she put the perfectly fitting pants on, she peeked inside the bag and found a bowtie much to her dismay. Honestly…a bow tie? How lame was this going to get? She didn't want to be mean, but a bowtie was seriously just a bit too much. And the worst part was, it was a shade of dark red and it had long strings dangling from it.

"ARE YOU DONE YET?!" a sudden shriek caused the white-haired girl to flinch. Obviously it was Chaoji, and now he was banging on the bathroom door loudly like a rapist. "HURRY UP!" the fat man hollered. "YOU ALREADY TOOK 3 MINUTES!"

"Coming!" Allen muttered as she buttoned up the vest and tied the bowtie around her neck, feeling quite stupid. Not that she could do anything about it. She had practically been _forced_ to work at this estate as a _slave_, and when she opened the door, Chaoji was standing there with his arms crossed, looking pretty huge as usual. "Is this fine?" she asked her new boss wearily, nervous for the scent that came out of his mouth every time he spoke. And it did come-oh it came alright-that wave of egg armpit sauce that washed over the poor girl like a river pouring over rocks.

"It'll do." Chaoji huffed as he studied her with narrow eyes, causing her to almost faint. Allen coughed uncomfortably as she glanced up and down at herself and what she was wearing.

The uniform consisted of black dress pants with a white shirt and a black vest with giant silver buttons over that. And on top of it all, there was the annoying bowtie that added as an accessory to the outfit. The uniform wasn't that horrible actually-it was better than she had imagined, but she felt more like a waitress. Or waiter. Since she looked more like a guy in those clothes than a girl.

"Now," Chaoji said as he took out a clipboard and a pen from probably, underneath his sweater, since he seemed like the type of person to put items in inappropriate places. "Since today is you're first day, I will be keeping an close eye on you." Allen almost groaned when the message arrived at her brain, but decided to keep it in to herself. "On this clipboard," the fat man continued on without sparing a glance, "There are three things you have to complete by the end of tonight. The first thing is, you must clean all the bathrooms on the east wing of the second floor." Allen raised an eyebrow at that instantly. East Wing of the second floor? How bloody big was this house? "Then, you have to mop the floor to 's office before he eats dinner. Oh yes I forgot- Mr. Tiedoll usually eats dinner in his office unless it is a special occasion, so we have to make sure that his office is clean everyday in order to prevent germs from getting into his food. So after you do a good job of cleaning his office, put his CD player on a Lenalee Lee song, because he perpetually listens to them when he eats. You should find her CD in the basket that Mr. Tiedoll has beside the CD player. And after that, you have to bring food to Mr. Kanda and Mr. Daisya as well. Both of them like to eat in their rooms normally, so you probably won't be able to find them at the dining table. Oh yes-and Mr. Kanda only eats soba and tempura, so if you bring him anything else other than that he'll probably dump the contents onto your hair…wait. Why is your hair white again? Weird. Anyway, yeah, just bring Mr. Kanda soba if you don't want to get hurt, and with Mr. Daisya, anything is basically fine, so the chefs should take care of that. So after that, you need to clean all of Mr. Tiedoll's paintings in the south wing of the bottom floor, since those haven't been cleaned in a while and have quite a few dust particles on them. So yeah, that's basically it tonight-I'm going easy on you, you should be grateful!"

Allen stared up at the hideous man in fright. If that whole speech he had just made had been a paragraph in a story, she definitely would have skipped over it (cough).

"Anyway," Chaoji continued on without even bothering to listen to her opinion on the whole thing. "I would like to show you around the house now, and then I'll take you to the east wing of the second floor where you can enjoy scrubbing the toilets."

"O-okay." Allen choked, feeling quite weak.

And this was only the first five minutes of it.

* * *

"Dude," was the first thing Daisya Barry said when he slammed open the door to his brother's room, which meant that he was practically just _asking_ to be murdered. "Have you seen my socks? You know, the neon purple ones that light up whenever you stomp on the floor real hard?"

And what he received as an answer was a death glare from the guy that was sitting on the bed, with his arms crossed. "No." Kanda answered coldly without bothering to glance up at the clown that was standing before him. "But you _will_ get your face stomped on if you don't get the hell out of my room in five seconds."

Daisya snickered-clearly entertained by his brother for some unknown reason. "Alright, Kanda." He almost gave out a laugh as he walked further into the room and plopped himself onto a chair-one of the only accessories that the dark-haired teen had in his room. "But I really need those socks! They're like my favorite pair! And I don't think I could be that happy without them!" Daisya whined loudly as Kanda suddenly jumped up from the bed, grabbed his sword, and took a swing at his brother, who had fallen off the chair due to shock.

"Calm down, Kanda!" his brother cried as he just managed to duck underneath the desk to save himself from the angry Japanese man.

"Che." Kanda gave his brother one last harsh look before putting mugen back into it's sheath and placing it on his bed, where it belonged. Of course he wasn't really going to kill him-sometimes he just liked to give the guy a scare once in a while, to prove that his brother really DID get on his nerves when he complained and that he would really chop his head off if Daisya didn't give him a choice.

The green-haired guy sighed a breath of relief as he climbed out from underneath the desk and placed himself back onto the chair with a hand over his heart, quite unhappy that he had just lost a few million cells from the scare. "Anyway," Daisya said as he brought both feet up on the desk and picked up a photo frame, not seeming to be bothered that much. "Tiedoll isn't so happy with you."

This got Kanda's attention. The Japanese teen raised an eyebrow at his brother questioningly, wondering why the hell he was telling him all of this. He had to admit that he DID care what the old man thought of him, but he wasn't exactly going to burst into tears if Daisya told him that Tiedoll though he was one of the worst children that he had ever had. Which might have been true. Kanda wasn't exactly that…_nice_ to the man. "If this is about Eden." He said with a voice of ice. "Then you can shut up."

Daisya rolled his eyes in frustration. "Why the fuck are you so selfish?" he wanted to know, still playing with the photo frame in his hands. "You know you're the ONLY ONE that can inherit it, so why can't you just-"

Kanda shot him a look that could probably have frozen hell. "And why can't you?" he hissed. "Because all you do every day is kick around a freaking soccer ball? And what about Marie? Because his dream is to be a doctor? So then that leaves_ me_ to look after this fucking huge company of Tiedoll's that none of you guys want because you guys have other things to do?" Kanda gave Daisya another glare when he remained silent. "So I'm the selfish one because of _that_?"

"Well, you _are_ the one that's enrolled in Black Order Academy." Daisya pointed out, causing Kanda to get even more pissed.

"Do you think I want to go to that school?" the dark-haired teen stared at the other evenly, trying to swallow down his anger. "Do you remember how Tiedoll forced me to go to that school when I was fucking eight?"

Daisya couldn't think of anything to say back to that, so he just remained quiet.

"Yeah," said Kanda when he saw the speechless look on the other's face. "And how about you try wearing a suit everyday to school with a tie? Or hear the words 'finance' or 'money' or 'company' like twenty billion times a day?"

Daisya, for once, looked worried about things. "Listen," he said, a bit more serious than usual. "I know sometimes life just isn't fair, but you just have to deal with it for others sake."

Kanda raised an eyebrow at that. "So you want me to accept it?" he demanded, not believing what he was hearing.

"No." was Daisya's surprising answer. "I'm just telling you…well…you should consider it. Tiedoll is getting pretty old and I don't want us to cause the old man that much trouble…"

Kanda let out a long sigh. "I know." He hissed. "So I guess I'll just have to make sacrifices."

Daisya mouth curved up into a sly smile as he took the picture of Lenalee from Kanda's desk and threw it up in the air, catching it swiftly as it landed. "Yeah." He said, fiddling with the frame. "I guess we all do."

Kanda shot him an annoyed look. "Break that thing and Lenalee will kick you out of this planet." He warned, though he didn't exactly care if she did. Actually, on the other hand, it wouldn't have been that bad of an idea either, considering that it could save Kanda from a lot of whines and complains. And sock-searches.

"Of course I won't break it." Daisya promised with a smirk. "Why would I want to do that to such a hot thing?"

Kanda rolled his eyes as his brother laughed a bit, got up from the chair and opened the door to the room. "See ya later." Daisya said as he stepped outside before closing the door. "Oh, and if you find my socks then tell me."

"Che." Kanda turned his head sideways as his brother closed the slammed the door shut, leaving him to sit there alone bitterly in thought.

The truth was though, Kanda had no idea what was going on. He didn't know what the hell he was going to do for his future, since he barely had one. He didn't WANT to inherit Eden after Tiedoll retired; he didn't like all that business shit in fact...it was more like he hated it, and he couldn't understand why Marie, the oldest of them three, couldn't inherit that company. The older, wiser, man was obviously more suited to that kind of job than he was, but unfortunatley Marie wanted to become a doctor and so that left him, Yu Kanda, to be the one who had to responsible for practically everything.

Clearly Kanda could just NOT inherit the company and just ditch this whole place as he would have liked to, but he did have some respect for the man and it was probably just better to accept Tiedoll's wishes. After all, the old man was getting old and he couldn't just ditch everyone and leave his responsibilities-

The teen's thoughts were interrupted by the sudden ring of a cellphone.

"What the fuck do you _want_?" Kanda snarled into the phone as soon as he reconigzed the caller ID. Honestly...what the hell did this person on the other line want with him? Sure- they had been friends when they were little, but that didn't mean that she had to call him every day so that they could chat about the lastest shoes on the Marc Jacobs runway. Or the hottest bags that Gucci had to offer. Really, couldn't she tell that phone calls like these were only going to make him more pissed off?

"You finally picked up!" Lenalee let out a giggle of happiness as she made a clapping sound with her hands. "Geez, I called you like eight times! Where were you?"

"Avoiding you."

There was silence on the other end.

A very, very, dead silence.

"He..hello?" asked Kanda cautiously. Damn...if he had hurt her feelings then he might as well as kill himself, since Komui probably would anyways-in his sleep. With a butter knife. And maybe a a couple of giant bulldozers. But seriously, he wasn't even exaggerating when he said that the popstar had called him more than eight fucking times that entire day. First it was at school, where his cell had just suddenly rang out during a lecture on the Financial Crisis. Everyone had crowded around him to see what kind of retarded person could be calling him during class, and he had had to quickly hide his cellphone in his pockets just in case some kid had saw the caller ID saying 'Lenalee Lee-don't answer' and freaked out. Then after that, the calls just came nonstop and after eight times of calling Komui's little sister had finally stopped being annoying-only to call him now at six thirty in the evening.

"Lenalee?" He repeated again carefully. Hopefully Komui wouldn't come screaming into his bedroom tonight with a bat, ready to break one of his legs.

After a long moment of quietness, a small voice finally rang out on the other end.

"Are-are you serious?" asked a tiny squeak.

Kanda sighed, wishing that he had just kept his mouth shut. After all, a speech about which model had tripped during the Fendi Fashion Show couldn't have been any less interesting than Tiedoll splattering pink paint all over himself. "No." he answered. "Nevermind. I wasn't talking to you."

The sun seemed to reveal itself on the other end of the line. "Re-really?" her voice brightened. "So you weren't avoiding my calls and was just really busy?"

Kanda snorted. "Yeah." he replied. Really...were all popstars this stupid?

"Well then," Lenalee laughed cheerfully as if she had just seen a pony gliding over a rainbow. "In that case, I must tell you about the preparations for the concert on Friday!"

Kanda nearly groaned; sometimes he wondered why he couldn't just say "Fuck you, Lenalee." Certainly the reason was more than just because she was a girl? Or was it just because he was afraid that Komui would chop his hair off?

Yeah, it was probably because of Komui.

"Anyway," Lenalee giggled as she began a speech longer than any president's. "So a few minutes ago we were rehearsing for the concert, right?" she went on without waiting for a reply. "And like, after my throat turned as dry as the sand I asked them if I could go get a Caramel Frappuchino and my manager was like, sure, so I went to Starbucks to get a drink. And then you know what happened?" she asked without waiting again. "I sat down at a table-with my sunglasses on of course-and on the ground I found like, the prettiest necklace ever. It's like, heart shaped and it's pink and it _glows_."

"That's amazing." Kanda answered, holding back the urge to chuck his cellphone across the room.

"It's not over yet." Lenalee said urgently. "I know I usually don't touch things that have been on the ground, but that necklace was reaaaally pretty so I was like whatever. So as soon as I picked it up, this woman with blonde hair came runnning over like her son had just died and she began frantically searching the area. I think she was probably searching for the necklace. I mean, it was probably hers."

Kanda raised an eyebrow. "So you gave it back to her?" he wanted to know. Well actually, he didn't give a shit, but whenever there was a conversation between them and he never took part in it she would spazz and threaten to kick him...so he _had_ to say something to keep his life.

"Well," Lenalee began. "Well actually...I didn't."

Kanda was quite surprised by this; even though she was annoying, spazzing, and a crybaby, Lenalee had one good quality about her-and it was that she was very kind. She wasn't like the other popstars that were fighting to reach the top of the charts-well sure she liked shoes, but she defenitley wasn't a diva and believe or not, had offered quite alot to charity. So when Lenalee wasn't being kind, which barely happened unless it was to her brother, it was really pretty shocking. "Why not?" He asked and this time with some interest.

"Um." said Lenalee, sounding embarrassed. "I didn't realize that until two hours later."

Kanda remained silent for a long moment. Sure she was kind and down to earth, unlike the some of the celebrities out there, but there was one thing that made her similar with the others-she was incredibly stupid.

"Do you expect me to say something?" Kanda said monotonously. "Because I don't have any more time to waste."

"It's just," Lenalee groaned dramatically. "I feel SO BAD! I mean, how could I have been SO STUPID?! Now that lady is probably in tears or something!"

"Calm down." Kanda said slowly. "It's just a necklace."

"And you know what the worst part of it was?!" Lenalee made a muffled noise over the phone. "I THINK THE BLONDE LADY KNEW THAT I TOOK IT! I mean, she was staring at me the whole time and I had just blinked back stupidly like I didn't know what was going on. She looked SO panicked! That necklace must have been like, REALLY important to her or something!"

Kanda remained silent. At least this messed up popstar knew that she wasn't too intelligent, unlike some people, who probably wouldn't ever admit that they were quite mentally challenged until the earth got destroyed-*cough* Daisya *cough*. The dark haired teen sighed; "It doesn't matter." he said, wondering why the hell did she have to come to him every time she had a fucking problem. "She can just buy a new one."

"Hopefully." Lenalee answered nervously. "I mean, it doesn't even look that expensive...it's just really pretty I guess."

"Yeah." Kanda snorted. "And I have to go now. Hopefully you don't kill yourself over something as stupid as this."

Lenalee's voice turned into a laugh. "What, are you actually worried about me?" she asked, sounding a bit better.

"Che."

And then he hung up on her.

* * *

"Dai-daisya?" Allen Walker asked nervously as she knocked on the door to a room that supposedly belonged to the guy who dressed like a clown. Hopefully she wasn't lost for the fifth time. And she knew she had to be careful not to drop the hamburger that was sitting on her plate right now too, since the leader of the servants Chaoji was probably around the corner, spying on her every move like he had for the whole time. Including the time where she had almost fallen into the toilet of course. "Daisya?" she knocked again, hoping silently that the guy was in his room, for if he wasn't then she would have to search around the whole house again. "Dai-"

"YO!" the door suddenly burst open and Daisya popped out, causing Allen to nearly drop the plate in surprise-though the clown looked pretty startled too for a moment. "Yo....Allen." His voice dragged off when he realized who it was. "Wups, sorry. I didn't know you were...." his gaze trailed from her face and down to her bowtie and the rest of the uniform in surprise. "Bringing us dinner." he finally snickered.

Allen coughed, hoping that she didn't look _too_ retarded in the uniform. "Well I am." she said in clear voice. "And..."

"Holy frying pan fuck!" His eyes widened suddenly at the sight of what was on the plate. "IS THAT A HAMBURGER?!"

Allen Walker took a step back. "Erm...yes?" she answered, wishing suddenly that there was a fire in the house and everyone had to evacuate away from this creep. "Have you never seen one before?"

"No, I'm just _starving_." Daisya groaned as he picked up the hamburger from her plate and stuffed a bite of it into his mouth. "Oh my god this is SO good."

"The chefs will be erm....happy to hear that." Allen decided as she handed the plate to Daisya, who was stuffing his mouth full of food. It was funny how you didn't realize what a person was like until you actually had a conversation with them. Really, when she had first seen Daisya, she hadn't expected to him to be so...strange. Sure, the way he dressed wasn't too normal and neither was his green hair, but now that she had talked to him she realized that he was really REALLY weird. Not that he wasn't nice, but he was just plain _weird_.

"So, what do you think of Kanda?" Daisya inquired suddenly, interrupting her thoughts.

The white-haired girl frowned in surprise. "What do I think of Kanda?" she echoed. "What do you mean?"

"Well," Daisya said as he swallowed a chunk of his hamburger. Allen noticed that the edges of his mouth were smeared with sauce, but oh well-at least he didn't talk with his _mouth_ full-that would have been even more disgusting than the state he was in right now. "You know," he continued with chews in between. "I know you guys have only met once or something, but you two really don't seem to get along well. I mean, not that he gets along well with alot of people, but you know what I'm saying."

"Erm." Allen blinked. "I don't?"

Daisya rolled his eyes as if the girl standing before him had comprehension problems, but the truth was he was the one who didn't even know what he was blabbering about. "You know," he said. "Most people don't usually argue back when he says something bitchy to them, unlike you, so I was wondering what you think of him."

"They don't?" Allen repeated in surprise. "Well are you sure they weren't mimes then? Because I'm pretty sure most people would say something back to a guy who says the f word after every sentence."

Daisya shrugged and snickered. "They don't." he laughed. "Kanda's a bit too scary for their liking. So usually people just run away when he glances at them."

Allen raised an eyebrow. "Well he should wear sunglasses then." the girl decided, wondering why the heck she was even having such an awkward conversation. With a guy that looked like clown. And an invisible hamburger that by now was in the digestive system. "Anyway," she sighed as she took the empty plate from Daisya. "Speaking of Kanda, I have to go bring his food to him now...why do you guys even eat in your rooms anyway?" she asked him. Really, with a house this huge, it was ironic how everybody just ate anywhere they wanted to instead of the big dining room that they probably had. It didn't even make any sense.

Daisya shrugged as he wiped his mouth with his sleeve. "Well it takes a fucking long time to get down to the dining room, you know?" he shrugged. "So we usually just eat anywhere we want unless its a special occasion or something."

"Oh." Allen said. Well that certainly was an interesting answer. "Well see you then..." she forced a smile as Daisya nodded and closed the door to his room. Alright, so this part had already past and it wasn't as bad as she had expected, but the worst was yet to come, since next she was supposed to deliver soba to that mean bastard with long hair. But where the heck was his room? Was it on the east wing or the west wing? Or maybe even the north wing? But wait, weren't all the bedrooms on either side...?

Just as she turned the corner with the tray of soba in her arms, a sudden man sprung out from the corner and leapt at her. "HIII THEERREEE!!!" some guy screamed.

It was Chaoji.

She recognized the smell.

"Erm, hi." Allen said as she desperately held her nose close to the soba and tried to inhale it in-at least it was better smelling than his armpitty sauce breath. So, were you spying on me again? she wanted ask but of course didn't. And since the answer was quite obvious, she remained silent.

But Chaoji didn't. "Hmph." the fat man studied her closely. "You're not doing too bad, but I was watching you when you were delivering food to Daisya-you didn't bring him a napkin."

Allen coughed. "Well, would he have used it?" she wanted to know, the image of Daisya wiping his disgusting mouth on his sleeve suddenly popping into her head. Or course she didn't mention that she had brought him a napkin-it was just that he preferred to wipe his mouth on other places and Chaoji was just quite blind, that was all.

"Of course he would have!" Chaoji exclaimed in shock, throwing his hands in the air dramatically. "Use your common sense, you dimwit!"

Allen almost burst out laughing at that sentence. Yes, she was British and didn't use American slang that much, but it was more like common sense not to use the word dimwit. Honestly...even 'egad' was probably better than dimwit, and Chaoji probably couldn't even understand that. "Alright." Allen assured the boss with a smile, trying not to laugh. "I'll make sure he gets a napkin next time." she promised.

"Good." Chaoji grumbled and took out his clipboard. "Alright," he said and glanced down at the tray she was carrying, "Next you have to bring Mr. Kanda his soba...understand?"

The white-haired girl nodded. "Is his room on this wing?" she asked.

"You should know that by now." Chaoji rolled his eyes and turned back around the corner, figure disappearing past the walls of the house. Allen pouted. If she had been someone else she would have probably stuck her middle finger at the fat man.

But since she wasn't, she would just have to deal with the messed up people in this world-after all, there were all kinds of people sharing this planet.

* * *

Knock. Knock.

Kanda glared at the door in annoyance as placed his pencil down on the desk. Dammit, he was fucking doing his homework! Why couldn't the stupid clown just leave him alone in peace for once instead of coming to his room every few minutes to ask retarded questions about ducks and socks?! Honestly, unlike his brother, he actually DID his homework...well most of the time anyway. Daisya never did his homework and all he liked to do was dress up his soccer ball, so being the non-busy one, he liked to hang around in Kanda's room most of the time.

Which pissed the man off alot.

"I'm busy." Kanda answered as he ignored his brother and tried to solve the next question. Alright, so what was the tangent ratio if x equaled 12.4 and y was unknown but the other angle was 32 degrees? Dammit...this wasn't as easy as he had thought. Why the hell did he even need to know all of this anyways? It wasn't like he was going to be building bridges in the future...

Knock. Knock. Knock. Knock. Knock.

"Shut up!" the dark-haired teen hissed as he tried to concentrate.

Knock. Knock. Knock. Knock. Knock.

Kanda snapped his pencil in half. Alright-screw doing math-he was going to murder his brother and then go to jail. It would be worth seeing the dumbass bleed to death and then apologize for not leaving him alone. "What the hell do you want?" he snarled as he grabbed his sword and stormed over to the door, slamming it open with much more force than needed, causing a huge noise to strike the wall. "I told you, for the twentieth time, I don't have your fucking neon socks!"

His glare suddenly faltered when he saw the person standing there in front of his door--standing there with a startled expression on her face wasn't Daisya, but the girl named Allen Walker carrying a tray in her hands. Kanda gave her glare and then glanced down at the tray-which held a bowl of soba. Oh. Right. He had completely forgotten that he was human and needed something called dinner.

"I'm sorry," she smiled in amusement, revealing the scar on her pale skin. "But did you just say neon socks?"

Kanda rolled his eyes. "Che," he answered as he put Mugen back into it's sheath after realizing that he had no need to kill this person.

Allen widened her gray eyes in shock as she saw the sword that he held in his hands, now in securely in it's sheath. "I-I'm sorry," she nearly choked out, "But were you going to..._stab_ me with that thing?" she asked but wasn't sure if she wanted to know, exactly. After all, this house was crazy enough-one murderous criminal wouldn't have made much of a difference.

"It's called Mugen, you idiot." he hissed as he tightened his hands around the sword, causing Allen to raise an eyebrow.

"You named your weapon?" she almost wanted to laugh. "Who names their weapon?" she wanted to know, but then shook her head quickly. "Wait, let me ask that again-who the heck carries_ around_ a weapon?"

"Its useful when a moyashi comes along." Kanda growled in annoyance.

Allen furrowed her eyebrows together. "Stop calling me that!" she protested, lower lip falling into a frustrated pout. Had Kanda not been Kanda at that moment he would have called it almost..._cute_, but since he was just an assy samurai look-alike the teenager just shot her an icy look. "Whatever it means..." Allen trailed off embarrassedly.

"Che, dumbass."

"Well at least it's better than looking like I got a sex change."

Kanda shot her a look that was like yellow snow after that sentence. "What the fuck did you say?" he glared at the girl and leaned down dangerously close to her face. "Say it again?"

Allen yawned loudly, not seeming to be bothered by his presence at all. "Nah," she answered with her mouth wide open. "I'm too tired to deal with such a diva."

Kanda twitched at the word. Did this girl just call him what he though she called him? Because he wasn't sure if he had fucking heard right, and if he did then this kid could be prepared to get mugen slid down her throat. "Did you just fuckng call me a diva?" Kanda hissed viciously into her ear. "Because if you did then you should be ready to face mugen."

Allen blinked innocently. "I did?" she wondered aloud. "Well I don't know...I have Tourettes Syndrome, so sometimes I say things that I don't actually mean."

Kanda shot her a freezing stare. That did it. Screw not killing girls-why was that even in his rulebook in the first place? Because right now and right here he was going to murder this Allen Walker kid and shave all that snowy white hair off. "Give me my fucking soba or I'll be making soba with your intestines." he threatened as he pulled Mugen out from it's sheath and pointed it at the kid.

Allen huffed out an angry breath of air. "You know what?" she snapped. "You're really rude and obnoxious and disgusting!"

"Hand over the fucking soba," Kanda snarled, "And nobody gets hurt." Of course he didn't mention that he would murder her anyways even if she passed him the food...but some things just weren't meant to be revealed. After all, he didn't exactly want to go to jail after this.

"You're such a Wanker!" Allen puffed furiously.

Kanda snorted. "And you're such a Willy." he rolled his eyes as he took ahold of the plate and tried to grab it away from Allen's hands. Of course he usually wasn't this mean to girls-in fact, he was usually never this mean to anyone except for the time when he took Daisya's soccer ball and threw it at his crotch-but nevertheless, he grabbed the bowl of noodles and attempted to grab it away until Allen placed her hands on top of bowl and tried to pull it back.

"Say the magic word and you can have your bloody bowl of bollocks, you barmey!" the British girl shot him a dirty look as the words came flowing out of her mouth. She hadn't meant to use alliteration in that sentence, but for some reason it had just came out as what it was. A perfect tongue twister. "Let go!" Allen squeaked as she yanked the tray backwards.

"No." Kanda replied he pulled the tray towards him.

"Stop being so rude!" Allen hissed as she tugged on the tray with more strength.

"Shut the hell up." Kanda spat as he jerked the object back, but before the both of them could yell 'bugger', it had happened; the typical ending to a game of tug-o-war with a bowl of soba.

Sploosh.

Kanda had quick reflexes, but he obviously wasn't quick enough to catch the bowl of flying noodles across the air that had now splattered over the both of them; pieces of noodle and wet dripping soup had landed on both of their heads-though the majority of the food was sitting on top of his hair for some reason and Allen only had a few bits of noodle stuck in her hair. Kanda glared at her murderously as Allen looked at him like he had just stole her wallet.

"What the fuck is wrong with you?" The dark-haired teen demanded as he chucked the empty bowl of soba across the hallway. "Seriously...what the fuck is your problem?!" He couldn't think of a single thing to say; the situation was just so messed up it almost felt unreal. For god's sake, they weren't in a fucking Disney cartoon-so why the hell did something so stupid as that just happen? And it was over a fucking bowl of soba too!

"If you had just not acted like such an arse then you probably wouldn't be dripping wet with soup right now!" Allen huffed angrily as she shook her hair, causing some of the pieces to fall off and onto the already ruined floor.

"Are you saying that this is my fault?" Kanda spat harshly. "Because-"

"OH MY GOD!" A sudden cry caused them both to whip around and glower at the interrupting voice, but when Allen saw who it was her glare faltered.

"OH MY GOODNESS GRAPES!" Chaoji screamed again in terror as he scurried over towards the mess and knelt down beside the white-haired girl to examine the mess. "THE FLOOR IS RUINED!!!"

Kanda grunted. "Che, thanks to Miss Walker here." he said menacingly and crossed his arms.

Chaoji glanced up from the floor in shock. "All-Allen Walker?" he stammered in terror. "DID YOU DO THIS?!"

"Well, I-" she began, but then turned mute much to her own dismay. After all, what could she say? That this whole thing had happened because Kanda was being an arse as usual and being rude? Yeah, because Chaoji was totally going to listen to what she had to say. "Well...um..." she stammered, glancing up at Kanda, who just turned his head away with a "Che." Honestly, why on earth would such a creature like him even be born? "I'm...sorry..." was what ended up coming out of her mouth in the end.

"I"M SORRY?!" Chaoji repeated with a shout. "IF ONE SORRY COULD SOLVE EVERYTHING, THEN WE WOULDN'T NEED THE POLICE!"

Allen sighed. "I know." she replied depressingly. "But I really am...sorry. I'll clean it up right away." Chaoji rolled his eyes at the girl, but Kanda couldn't help noticing that she looked almost a little sad, which was funny, because she had started the whole argument in the first place. Or did she? Well, she did say that he looked like he had had a sex change. But that was because he had called her a moyashi. So...whose fault was it?

"I apologize terribly," Chaoji said as he dipped his head at him. "I'll go ask the chefs to make a new bowl of soba right away." then he spun around towards Allen and shot her a look that was almost as messy as the soup drenched floor. "And I'll talk to you later." He grumbled.

Kanda rolled his eyes as the fat man quickly scampered past the hallway and down the stairs, leaving him to stand there alone with Allen, who was crouched onto the ground, unmoving. Well, he supposed part of it was his fault, but the moyashi had to take the greater blame, since she was well, the moyashi. "Aren't you going to start cleaning that up?" He wanted to know, but only received a glare from the girl.

"You know what?" she said. "You are such an arse. Seriously...I've never met someone so...despicable."

"Che, you don't have to tell me that." he answered dryly as he stepped back into his room and closed the door shut, leaving Allen to sit there alone in the middle of the hallway to clean up the mess. The dark-haired teen walked back towards the desk and sat back down, glaring at the mathbook as he did so. He tried to do a few trigonometry questions, but failed to do so for some reason. Wait a second...did he feel...._guilty_? Kanda widened his eyes as he realized that he actually felt a bit bad for the moyashi, which was amazing, because he didn't feel bad for anyone. Ever.

Kanda sighed and crossed his arms. Well, he supposed that it did make sense. After all, that moyashi probably had to tons of work as a servant at his house, especially under the order of Chaoji. And yet he had acted like such a jerk. Not that he cared about other people's feelings.

The teen glanced at the hourglass sitting on the desk.

He raised an eyebrow at the sight. Weird. How come another one of the lotus's petals had fallen?

What crap quality.

* * *

Chaoji huffed out an angry wave of air, causing some molecules in the air around him to die.

"I AM SO DISAPOINTED WITH YOU."

Allen lowered her head; well those words had definitley been expected. The only thing was she didn't know what to say-today was only her first day as a servant and she had already done something so stupid. Really, why had she even jerked the bowl of soba backwards when she knew that something like this usually happened after some pulling and yanking? Maybe it had been out of anger, but did she really have that little control of her mood? Well...she supposed talking to Kanda made everyone mad. But she really shouldn't have acted so dumb back there.

"I won't tell Tiedoll about this since it's only your first day here." Chaoji grumbled, his bad breath intoxicating the air around him; not that Allen cared-she was a bit too unhappy to notice that the plants around them were faltering. "But never let it happen again!"

Allen sighed. "I know." she answered dully. "I'm really, really sorry about this."

Chaoji rolled his eyes. "Whatever." he muttered as he flicked his hair. "Go home now-remember, come right after school tomorrow."

"I will."

Chaoji nodded and went down the stairs-or squeezed down the stairs since it was a bit narrow-leaving Allen to stand there alone and stare after the fat man. Well...it really had been an interesting night, she supposed, but not exactly in a good way. She had almost been expecting to be fired after such a clumsy incident, but unfortunatley Chaoji and Kanda had kept this to themselves, which made her mad, since it was Kanda's fault in the first place for acting like he had a lightbulb stuck up his arse. A broken one that didn't light up, of course.

Allen huffed angrily just thinking about it; what the heck was wrong with that man? Just because he was so rich and spoiled didn't mean he had to be an arse twenty four seven. Honestly, he was almost as bad as Cross-except Cross didn't even randomly act like his period had come unless he was drunk, so it was semi-exceptional. But Kanda was always in a bad mood-heck, he would probably be in a bad mood even if the flowers were sprouting out of the ground...wait. Then he would be in an even worse mood.

The white-haired girl sighed; she needed something to get her mind off of this place. Some place where she could roam freely and do whatever she want.

Yes, somewhere like that.

Allen's joyless expression suddenly lit up into a wide grin.

How long had it been since she had kicked someone's bumbum at poker?

* * *

Allen Walker swallowed nervously as the bright neon lights on the casino standing before her glimmered in contrast to the night, as if it were daring her to enter. The British girl took a step forward towards the giant flat building with her nerves shivering in anxiety. But, even though she was as scared as hell, she didn't even give a bloody bugger anymore, since her life was already like this anyway. And she was _definitely_ going to win some tonight, whether she cheated or not, since she had to pay back the debts quickly before Chaoji suffocated her with his armpitty breath again.

And she was clearly going to have to do it this way.

"Um, hello there." Allen greeted the guard standing in front of the casino weakly as the bulky man raised an eyebrow when he saw the tiny figure standing before him.

"Do you have an ID?" the man demanded, clearly suspicious about the child, which proved that Yu Kanda was right about one thing-Allen Walker DID look like she was eight years old.

"Ye-yeah." The white-haired girl replied, trying to sound as calm as possible even though she was practically stuttering through every sentence. Quickly, Allen reached into the pocket of her coat, took out her cheap wallet, and pulled the ID out, handing it to the guard.

The bulky man snatched the ID away-but not before giving Allen a skeptical glare first-and peered at the card carefully as the British girl fiddled nervously with her gloves. Mentally she was silently praying that the guard would be a dumbass and just let her in, since it was quite obvious that she wasn't over eighteen, unlike the statement on the fake ID that Cross had given to her. Yeah, you read right-a few years ago, when she had been living with her guardian Cross Marian, he had owed a lot of debts, so the only way to pay them back was to force his adoptive child into gambling, of course. Only, a few years ago Allen Walker had not agreed to this, but since Cross didn't know what "No" meant, he had just stuffed her into some random shack and placed her at the poker section with a kick and a murderous laugh. All of the gamblers were the people whom Cross owed money to though, so they didn't exactly care that it was basically illegal to stuff a 7 year old girl into a bloody gambling shack and so they had actually started to play with her, resulting in the master of poker she was now. Not that she minded much-the part where she almost had to strip off her clothes once, yes, but not the part where she was absolutely a winner at winning. In poker.

"Get in." the man jolted her out of her thoughts suddenly with a grumble and handed back her ID roughly. Allen nodded and smirked mentally as she walked through the doors, ignoring the gaze of disapproval that the guard was giving her from behind. Whatever-as long as she got the bloody money it didn't even matter.

"Hello." Allen smiled sweetly as she placed herself at a table full of chattering people. Most of them were men in their 20s, but there were a couple of women sitting around the table as well, who were all covered in heavy makeup and lots of lip gloss. She decided that she would play these people tonight, but to be honest, she was actually quite nervous, since she hadn't played in a while.

"Texas hold'em?" a man with shaggy black hair grinned at her toothily as he held up the deck in his hands and tilted his head to the side. Allen nodded with a weak smile and tried not to get creeped out, for the man was wearing a pair of swirly glasses and he looked like he was one of those internet perverts who liked to ask random girls for their email addresses.

The man smirked. "Alright." He said as he passed the cards to the dealer, who then began to shuffle them. Then he turned to Allen and his mouth curved up into a wide smile, causing the girl to shiver in fear for second even though with those giant glasses, it was hardly possible to take him seriously. "Let me introduce myself." He greeted in a voice that sounded a sweet yet rough at the same time, somehow as if he smoked honey cigars, if that even made any sense. "My name is Mikk." He dipped his head in greeting.

"And I'm Clara." A blonde woman who looked quite young nodded at everyone sitting at the table to introduce herself. Soon everyone began revealing their identities in greeting, since it was polite.

"Jason." Another man said roughly.

"Maria."

"Kacey."

"Ronald."

"Fabio."

"Karl."

"Err..." said Allen hesitantly as everyone turned to her expectantly for an answer. "Erm," she repeated, since she didn't exactly want to tell all these gamblers that her name was Allen Walker. "Well…" she said thoughtfully for a moment and finally said the first name that popped into her head. "I guess you can call me Guatalupei."

There was a sequence of staring.

And after a moment of awkward silence, the dealer finally interrupted the muteness. "Well," the man said cheerfully, even though he had dark circles under his eyes due to night shifts. "Lets get this started, shall we?" The man named Mikk coughed lightly as the game of Texas hold' em poker started. Allen Walker took a deep breath, and concentrated. Hopefully tonight, she wouldn't have to cheat, since she got super nervous ever time she did. It was true that her cheats had never failed, especially when she did a sleight-hand, but _still._ It was just real _nerve-racking,_ she tried to stay away from using improper methods as often as she could_, _since deep down inside she was Allen Walker, the rule-following straight-stick.

After while into the game though, Allen Walker the straight-stick died. Since in half an hour, the British girl had already cheated thirteen times-which included of nine sleight-hands, two hand-mucks, and two collusions. She had also been laughing murderously the whole time, scaring some of the players at the table. In fact, even Mikk, who looked like a cyber-perv, was scratching his hair in frustration. The dealer also had his eyes narrowed in suspicion, since it was almost obvious that Allen was cheating, but everytime the man peered over to catch her switching cards, she would lift her head up and blink innocently at him, wonder written on her expression, causing the dealer to sigh and shake his head hopelessly.

"Royal Flush." Allen said in an even voice as everyone at the table stared at the cards she had placed out onto the table.

The woman named Clara had her eyes stretched open so wide Allen thought they were going to pop out of her sockets. "Are you freaking kidding me?" she jaws dropped open. "How many times now?"

Allen shrugged, almost wanting to release an evil laugh. "Oh." she replied carelessly. "I dunno. I lost count."

The man named Karl shuddered in fright. "If we were playing strip poker right now," he said, voice shaking. "I would probably have to rip my skin off by now."

Allen laughed a bit too loudly. "What are you talking about?!" she managed to say between giggles fits. "Nonsense!" she laughed again and waved her hands in the air dramatically. "You guys are doing great!" _at giving me the money I need_, she thought but didn't say out loud of course.

It was almost as if she had changed into a different person. But for some reason, it only happened every time she played poker-everytime she sat down at the gambling table, her personality would change from an innocent pure girl into a loud evil person that was almost a bit like Cross Marian. And she didn't even know why-not that she cared. Honestly, as long as she was getting the chips that she was here for, nobody was going to get hurt.

"Oh my." Mikk said in disbelief as he peered at the white-haired girl through his giant glasses. This girl was so fucking good there was now only four people left at the table-five including the dealer. But in only half an hour? That was pretty insane. "I'm afraid I might be next." he frowned in worry as Allen turned to him and smiled widely.

"Really?" she smirked then tilted her head to the side. "Well Mikk, I'm not sure. You're pretty good at this yourself."

"I'll take that as a pure compliment." Mikk sighed, not noticing the hint of twisted words that Allen had thrown in there, since by "You're pretty good at this too," she basically meant that he was about to get his arse kicked to Hogwarts, where Mr. Weasley would stab it with a broom. "I really do hope I don't go bankrupt by the end of tonight." he added with a tinge of sadness in his voice.

"I really do hope I turn into a millionaire by the end of tonight," Allen smiled thoughtfully, receiving a glare from the woman named Clara, who looked like she wanted to take a spade out of the cards and chuck it at the child. Allen sighed; if she didn't become a millionaire, hopefully she would at least make enough money to pay back SOME of the debts for Tiedoll so she wouldn't have to work there for that long. Tiedoll really was a nice man, she knew, but she just didn't want to be such a bother at his house. Or receive any more icy looks from a certain guy with dark hair.

After quite a lengthy time-the man named Karl had left in disappointment after he had lost everything as well-but not without sobbing loudly first. "I-I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU JUST BEAT ME IN POKER!" he burst out in tears, spazzing quite a bit. Allen sighed in faked pity as Karl pointed a finger at the girl accusingly. "I WANT TO BEAT YOU UP!!!" he yelled but the Dealer quickly stood up and tried to calm him down, which didn't exactly work. "IF I WERE THE KING OF HEARTS," the man huffed, face turning into a shade of tomato red. "I'D CRUSH YOUR HEART SO BADLY YOU'RE HEART WOULD HURT!" he spazzed out some more and after receiving only a few innocent blinks from Allen he only seemed to get angrier. "YOU HEAR ME?! DON'T TAKE ME SO LIGHTLY! I SWEAR, IF YOU WERE A CHIP I'D CHUCK YOU OUT OF THE WINDOW-"

"Security." the Dealer said into a walkie-talkie and soon two hunky men wearing black came over to the table and dragged the man away.

"DON'T YOU THINK THAT THIS IS OVER, GUATALUPEI!" Karl shouted in tears as he was dragged away forcefully by the two guards, who shook their heads sadly as they pulled him along, probably wondering why such messed up people even existed in this world.

Mikk, on the other hand, seemed quite entertained by all of the noise though. "If I were the King of Hearts he would break your heart?" the man chuckled to himself amusingly. "That's so witty I think I'll have to steal that line for myself to use someday."

Allen laughed at that in agreement but they continued to play an intense game of cards. The dealer coughed as he suddenly made an announcement. "Right now in the lead," he said as the woman named Clara dealt the cards. "Is Guatalupei with 700 dollars."

Allen smirked to herself, almost a bit proud that after all these years her poker skills hadn't faltered much. Then she glanced down at the huge pile of chips that she had at her table, and smiled at them like they were her babies, which was quite true. All those chips meant money...which she needed more than anything right now. But things really were going pretty well currently, so she wasn't going to oppose of course. "Full House." she said calmly, hoping that nobody had noticed her slide a card underneath her sleeves. The girl knew that there were probably video cameras hanging atop the ceilings, but over the years she had learnt how to deal with those machines so they weren't really a bother. Clara sighed as Allen showed her the cards and shook her head as if the world were about to end.

"I'm leaving." Clara let out a depressing noise as she slid all of the remaining chips across the table and left the room, probably off to go jump off a bridge now that she had lost a few hundred dollars. Allen, on the other hand though, collected the chips cheerfully and hummed a familiar piano tune to herself as she did so. She glanced up at the man named Mikk as she did though; now there was only him left, and he wasn't that easy of an opponent. But she wasn't going to lose to him of course-not when she had tricks up her sleeve.

"Looks like it's just you and me now," Mikk sighed as he lit a cigarette and offered the box to Allen, who shook her head quickly. "Man, this game went by so fucking fast."

Allen nodded and grinned at the man who was now smoking. "So true." she laughed but inside her mind she was ready to take all of this guy's money. "Show your cards."

"Four of a Kind." Mikk replied as he revealed the combination of four nines and one three.

Allen blinked. "Looks like you win this round, Mikk." she said as she exposed her own cards-which happened to be three fives. "Here you go." the girl smiled as she passed him the amount she had betted. Clearly she had lost this round-but her confidence wasn't going to falter at all; she was ahead of him by a few hundred dollars.

After the Dealer dealt them each five cards again, Mikk betted half of his chips and Allen only a tiny bit of her money-since she was probably going to win anyway even if Mikk had won the next round and it wasn't worth losing so much money for the last round. "Show your cards." Allen ordered with confidence. She had to win this. This was the final round.

Mikk's mouth curved up into a smile as he placed the cards onto the table. "Straight Flush." he said, voice hinting a tinge of challenge for her to beat that.

But of course Allen had other plans. "Royal Flush." she announced as she placed her hand on the table to reveal the set of rare combination of cards which consisted of a ten of Diamonds, a Jack of Diamonds, an Ace of Diamonds, a Queen of Diamonds, and a King of Diamonds. Of course originally the Ace of Diamonds hadn't been in that ensemble-well it had been in her sleeve-but after a few hand-sleights and switching of cards the Ace of Diamonds had finally managed to make it's way into the Royal Straight Flush-quite a shocking sight to see.

Mikk almost choked on his cigarette as he widened his eyes beneath those glasses. "Did I just see those cards that I just saw?!" he said as he bent over the table and eyed the set of cards with jaws open like he was about to eat them up.

Allen nodded innocently. "Yes." she giggled criminally while making sure that the card that she had switched was securely hidden up her sleeve. "Aren't I just_ lucky_ today?" She asked loudly but didn't receive an answer from Mikk, since he was still staring at the set of cards on the table like he was in a coma. For a moment Allen thought that he was turning into an icicle until after a long minute he finally moved again, movements jerky like a robot. "Oh my fucking...God." he said breathlessly as he passed all of his chips over with a shiver. "There was no freaking way you could have gotten that without cheating, cheating girl A."

Allen blinked at Mikk, who looked like he was having an asthma attack. "Huh?" she asked in confusion. "Cheating girl A?"

Mikk sighed, sounding like he wanted to go to the Aquarium and jump into the shark tank. "I don't know how you did it," he shook his head, "But you're cheats are amazing. Really, how do you switch the cards so fast?"

Allen smiled innocently. "What are you talking about?" she tilted her head to one side. "You're just angry that you lost, aren't you?"

"That too." Mikk grumbled and got up, running a hand through his dark hair. "Well, it looks like I shouldn't have came to the casino today..." his voice trailed off as he peered at Allen through his giant glasses. "I enjoyed gambling with you though, Guatalupei. Maybe we'll meet again someday."

"Maybe we will." Allen smiled as she picked up a chip from the table and flicked it at Mikk, who caught it smoothly in confusion.

"Eh?" Mikk studied the colorful piece and then blinked at Allen. "Why did you just give me a hundred dollar chip?"

Allen shrugged. "You played well." she replied; it was true though. The people she usually played poker with were either drug addicts or men with lots of facial hair; the complete opposite of this Mikk person. Surprisingly he had been very kind and had accepted his loss like a gentleman, unlike some crap-players out there who would scream and spazz after realizing that they shouldn't have betted all their money. Really, Mikk was a rare sight to see.

"Well, thankyou then." Mikk blinked in surprise as he twirled the chip around his fingers. "I'll make sure to keep this." He grinned widely and tossed the piece in the air, catching it swiftly in his hands. "Hopefully we'll meet again someday."

The girl nodded and waved goodbye as she watched the man walk out the casino doors.

And that was how Allen Walker met her antagonist for the very first time.

* * *

RAWRRRRR! IF YOU DIDN'T READ THE NOTE AT THE TOP PLEASE READ IT AND VOTE! OR JUST TELL ME WHAT YOU THINK! ;D

THANKS AGAIN!!!

And oh, **MERRY CHRISTMAS** and **HAPPY NEW YEAR**!!!! **RAWWRRRRRRRR**

**P.S**-whoever pushes the green button below gets a nice present from Santa...hohoho...


	6. Speechless

**-----HI THERE!!! FOR THE SIXTH TIME!!! -----**

So YUP, it's the sixth chapter and this is the chapter where the transition appears. Yeah, that's right-THE TRANSITION! Because this story is **NOT** about high school romance and maid uniforms or fluttery pink hearts! Because-ew-GROSS I would never write something like that! So um, sorry to those out there who thought this fic was going to be all summery and happy. I'd call this fic more as a mystery type. But why? Well...you'll just have to keep reading to find out.

THANKS AGAIN TO THE PEOPLE WHO FAVED AND ALERTED! AND A DOUBLE THANKS-I MEAN, _**TRIPLE **_THANKS TO THE **REVIEWERS**! Kind of sad I know, but your support makes me hop for joy. Haha, and I'm glad you guys liked the poker scenes. They were actually really fun to write, since you get to write the dark side of Allen and her muahahas. lol.

**THANKS AGAIN!!! :D**

* * *

_-6-_

"Well, you sure look like you went to bed at 4'o clock last night." Lou Fa noted as she studied the girl sitting across from her, whose chin was resting in her open palm exhaustedly.

Allen Walker glanced up from the lunch table and blinked at her friend sleepily, her sandwich still placed on the table, untouched. Well of course she didn't mention that the reason she was bloody going to fall asleep right there was because she had gone to a small casino near the area and had gambled with a bunch of people who were much older than her. Really...it wasn't exactly the greatest way to spend a Thursday night, but at least she had won 868 dollars.

Not that bad.

"Allen...is there something that you're not telling us?" another voice asked anxiously. "You really don't look that...well."

The white-haired girl tilted her head to the side-clearly out of energy-and frowned at the guy sitting beside her. _Holy bloody bollucks_, she suddenly realized as she blinked at the figure staring back at her worriedly. She had been so tired that she hadn't even noticed when Krory, another one of her friends, had come to sit at their table for lunch time, something that occasionally happened. "I'm fine." she answered, hoping that it was assuring even though she clearly sounded like she needed some Red Bull. "I just went to bed late last night."

"Well..." Krory trailed off with the same expression, a cup of red juice in his hands. Allen had to admit that the guy was a bit scary-looking, but inside he was a really kind person; probably one of the kindest that she knew. After all, people really shouldn't judge other people by their looks, even though Krory had the ears of an elf and the face of a vampire. Oh well-there were all kinds of looks out there, so whatever.

Some people didn't think so though.

"Ewww, look! Its the circus!" a nasty voice hissed all of a sudden and Allen recognized it instantly-Alexis. The B with a itch. Probably the person most likely to work in a circus when grown up, since there was so much makeup plastered over her face she almost looked like a bloody clown. And yet here _she_ was the one trotting over with her group of 'friends', probably just aching to start a fight about designer clothes.

"What do they want?" Krory hid his face quickly with his sandwich in fright.

"Krory!" Lou Fa hissed. "What are you doing covering yourself with that moldy bread?! I can't believe-"

"Hey guys." Alexis interrupted with a smile on her glossy lips. Allen found it funny how you could even see her mouth under all that foundation. Science was certainly interesting!

"Hi." Lou Fa replied in an even voice, causing some of the followers standing beside the girl to laugh. Honestly...even the jokes on Sponge Bob were better, and yet they were giggling at a single word that was probably used 5 billions times a single bloody day. Oh, they sure had a great sense of humor.

"So..." Alexis said, searching for the right words that could make someone cry. Her gaze-which could probably kill a puppy-drifted over to the lunch table and her eyes-which were covered in heavy mascara-finally rested on Allen's hair. Well...what a surprise. "So, um...Allen." She vocalized, pretending that she couldn't remember the name even though she said it everyday in a not-so-nice tone. "You look..." the British girl turned around sleepily and blinked at her. "Depressed."

As soon as she said that, everybody in the cafeteria turned around for some reason-well most of the people-and stared at their table. Allen almost groaned out loud; honestly, they weren't _that_ entertaining, were they? What was so fun to watch about some bitches talking to some kids who didn't even give a bloody bugger? And yet everyone was now sitting at their own tables, eyes boring into her back, just waiting for something interesting to happen. What was wrong with this bloody planet?!

"I do?" Allen blinked at her. Alexis was clearly expecting some kind of a reaction, and she wasn't going to give it to her. "Oh."

Alexis stuck out a finger and pointed it to her face rudely. "You know," she said, enjoying the attention that the whole cafeteria was giving her. "You've got some, um, dark circles underneath your eyes."

A few of the followers snickered at the comment, but Allen just raised a hand and touched her skin carefully. "I do?" she echoed. "Oh. I guess I shouldn't have-" she stopped herself immediately before saying what she was about to say, which was the word _gambled_. She couldn't imagine what the reaction would be if the word had actually popped out of her mouth...screaming perhaps? Or laughter? Or maybe nobody would even have believed her, thankfully. "I shouldn't have slept that late I guess." she corrected herself.

"Have you heard of something called _concealer_?" Alexis blurted out suddenly, obviously having little self-control on asking retarded questions. "Do you even know what that is? Because I use it everyday-well actually we all do-but yeah, have you-"

"Concealer?" Allen stared back at her in innocent confusion and tilted her head to the side. "Isn't that the type of drug that makes you act all...you know." her voice suddenly lowered into a whisper. "Brainless?"

There was a random outburst of laughter in the cafeteria, and Allen couldn't help wondering what was so funny about that. Sure she had meant it as an insult, but it how was it enough to make the students giggle that much? She glanced around-people all over were laughing at the comment, and yet Allen didn't even know what concealer was. It was probably some type of makeup, but she didn't know EXACTLY what it was for. Or why the people were laughing.

"Um, no it's not." Alexis placed a hand on her hips and gave Allen an icy glare. "I don't do drugs. Though, on the other hand, you probably do _alot _of different types that none of us have _heard_ of, otherwise your hair wouldn't be _white_."

Allen grinned. "You mean like concealer?" she asked brightly, causing some more quiet chuckles to ring out in the cafeteria. Allen glanced at Lou Fa in puzzlement, but the Chinese girl only smiled back at her toothily. Krory still had his sandwich raised in front of his face though-in fact, he was...shuddering. Which wasn't exactly that surprising. Sure, the guy was kind, but he wasn't exactly the bravest person out there, especially when a bunch of girls who looked like monsters came to their table-something that happened frequently.

Alexis looked like she wanted to write 'Fuck you' on Allen's face with Chanel eyeliner. "You know what?" she hissed, screwing the pretense of being an elegant girl. "I feel really, really, sorry for you. You wanna know why? Because you're as stupid as my Juicy underwear that wouldn't fit-" this caused an uproar of laughter throughout the room- "and that bottle of mascara that dried up after a freaking month. That's how retarded you are. And you know what's even worse?" she tilted her head to the side furiously, her long blonde ponytail swishing as she did.

"Um, I don't know what concealer is?" Allen guessed, receiving a look of daggers from the girl.

"No." Alexis replied calmly. "You're hideous white hair makes you look sixty- five."

And with that she left cockily, her group of clones following behind her-giving their table dirty glances before trotting away in their Jimmy Choos. Their leave was accompanied by a bunch of "Ohs" and "Damns" but it was mostly silent and only a few dumbass people were laughing. Allen Walker couldn't help grinning at that though-she had heard the old lady term more than a billions times-all coming from many different people. In fact, when she had first met Kanda at Walmart, he had thought that she was an old _man _(which was way worse), and later on when she had gone to his house for the first time, he had mistakened her for an old-man thief, whatever that meant. It was funny, really.

"At least I don't look like the new Clown Barbie." Allen muttered under her breath, though Alexis probably heard it anyways, since the girl stopped in her tracks suddenly and whipped around. Only it was wiser to just let it go, so Alexis just rolled her eyes and left the cafeteria, her 'friends' trailing behind her quickly as she stormed out of the giant doors.

"Allen, high five me!" Lou Fa cried suddenly, raising her hand across the table as soon as they left. "That was amazing! You totally beat her to a pulp!"

"Erm, I did?" Allen blinked in surprise. "How did I beat her to a pulp? I didn't even hit her!"

Lou Fa rolled her eyes. "For God's sake Allen." she said, exasperated. "One minute you totally snatch away the spotlight, and then you just totally..." she stared at her friend and searched for the right words. "Go boom."

Allen laughed and then rubbed the back of her head drowsily. "I'm-I'm really sorry, Lou Fa." she smiled at her friend. "I suppose I'm just really...tired...haha."

Lou Fa gave her a hopeless look-but not before glancing at Krory first.

"Who-who were those people?!" the guy with black and white hair cried, hands shaking as he held the sandwich above his head. "Th-they were scary!"

Lou Fa sighed; even though Krory was the new kid at the school, this was a bit too unbelievable. "Krory," she gave him an odd stare. "Did you not have people like those at your old school? Because they're called _bitches_, and they're practically _everywhere_."

Krory suddenly placed his sandwich on the table-revealing his strange face-and blinked at her curiously. "Well..." he began, fiddling with his fingers in embarrassment. "I was er...home schooled."

Lou Fa's jaw dropped open to the floor. "ARE YOU SERIOUS?!" she cried loudly, jumping up from the table and startling a few other people. "YOU WERE HOMESCHOOLED?! WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL US THAT BEFORE?!"

Allen laughed lightly at her friend's reaction-really, Lou Fa was way too dramatic; what was so shocking about being home schooled? In fact, she herself wouldn't have minded being home schooled, but the only problem was, she didn't have a loving family to teach her things, especially since Mana was now dead. Jeez-she got teary just thinking about her old guardian-he was seriously way too awesome.

"Well..." Krory stumbled, causing Allen to lift her head away from her depressing thoughts, "I've only been here for two weeks, so I didn't have the chance to tell you guys...and I've only met you guys for a few days, so..."

Lou Fa shook her head in disbelief. "I still can't believe you were home schooled." she deadpanned. "That's soooo..._weird_."

Krory opened his mouth to protest, but suddenly the bell rang, causing the horde of students in the cafeteria to get up and rush to their classes like a swarm of bees attacking a bear. Allen stuffed her whole sandwich in her mouth and got up to leave to her class as well, which was Socials, the only class that she shared with Lou Fa. And oh-Alexis, but that wasn't too important to her life.

"Bye guys!" Krory waved as he left them to head to his class. Allen nodded to the elfish guy and went the other direction with her friend.

"Well, looks like that robot with the blonde wig isn't going to be too thrilled to seeing you in Socials." Lou Fa commented as they trotted out of the cafeteria doors and turned up the stairs.

Allen blinked. "Huh?" she echoed. "What robot?" and then she suddenly remembered, receiving a raised eyebrow from Lou Fa. "Oh, you mean Alexis!" Allen laughed, realizing how slow she was. Wow, gambling the night before had really drowned up alot of her energy-her brain certainly wasn't working too well today. "Well..." the British girl shrugged. "I don't really care. I mean, what is she going to do? Comment on my hair for the two hundredth time?"

Lou Fa pushed up her giant glasses. "Probably." she smiled as they hopped up the stairs.

Allen grinned. Whatever. It wasn't as if she cared; there was much more to life than a girl whose Juicy underwear wouldn't fit.

* * *

_After School_

"OH EM GEE!" some random girl screeched suddenly. "THE LENALEE LEE CONCERT IS TODAY!!!"

A guy suddenly spun around in shock. "It-it IS?! he widened his eyes. "TODAY?!"

The girl stared at him like had just told her that his mom was a human eagle hybrid. "Um, _yeah_." she nodded slowly. "You sure are up to _date_."

The guy looked faint as the girl rolled her eyes like it was the most important thing in the world. "I..." his voice trailed off weakly, causing a bunch of people to stare at what he was about to say next. "I..." then he placed a palm onto his sweating forehead. "I...I..._shit_." his breathing suddenly became quick. "I...I-I FORGOT TO BUY FUCKING TICKETS!!!"

Allen almost wanted to stuff herself into her locker as a bunch of people suddenly started screaming alongside the person who had started it in the first place...the person she wanted to murder right now, something that she usually didn't consider doing. But since that annoying girl had just started a shouting club, _yes_. She really wanted to chuck a bomb at the crowd who were now chattering about the upcoming Lenalee performance. Oh, and the guy who had suddenly fainted right in the middle of the hallway.

"Somebody call the nurse!" a kid yelled as Allen sighed as stuffed her books into her locker, shaking her head. She seemed to be the only one right now who wasn't jumping up and screaming like they she had just won a million dollars, unlike the other teens, who were practically storming through the hallways and screaming 'Lenalee Lee'. Allen scratched her hair in confusion; really, what was so great about that popstar? Wasn't she just another girl who was beautiful, popular, and well...talented probably? People were always talking about how much they loved her songs, so Allen guessed that she probably had to be good at singing in order to be that famous. Otherwise why would she even be that great? There were billions of stars out there; the competition was clearly hard to take.

"Oh, my god, I am SO going to her concert," a familiar, snobbish voice jolted Allen out of her thoughts and the British girl turned around-only to see the one and only Alexis sauntering down the crowded hallways with some other girl who looked the exact same as her. "I mean, she is SO talented and I just LOVE her new album. It's _amazing_."

Allen almost wanted to puke; it wasn't that she didn't like Lenalee-in fact, she seemed like a nice person on TV-it was just that every time Alexis talked about her Allen just felt a need to hate everything she talked about...somehow.

"You are SO lucky!" the girl beside Alexis suddenly squealed as Allen tried to remember her name. Katie? Or was it Kacy? Erm, whatever. "Like, I tried to get the tickets online, but they were freaking sold out in the first ten minutes! How did you even do it?!"

Alexis's mouth curved up into a smile. "I have relations." she replied, clearly happy that she had it better. Her smile though, suddenly dropped when she saw Allen standing in front of her locker. In fact, it had turned into a glare. And quite a chilly one. "Hey, um, Allen." she called out suddenly. The white-haired girl turned around and blinked. "So are you going?"

"You mean to Lenalee's concert?" asked Allen.

Alexis rolled her eyes while her friend snickered. "Yes to Lenalee's concert." she laughed loudly. "I mean, where else? To the garbage can to shop for some new clothes?"

Allen raised an eyebrow as her friend giggled. It just never ended, did it? "Well I'm not going." was the slightly dark answer.

A smile seemed to flicker on the girl's face. "Oh." she said, clearly happy over something as stupid as this. "Well I guess that's too bad. I mean, its going to be a great concert. Maybe I'll get you a t-shirt?"

Allen wanted to laugh. The question obviously wasn't a question-it was just a trigger for Allen to say something stupid back to them of course. Which wasn't going to happen. "It's alright." the girl replied as she pulled out her math textbook from the locker, careful not cause the other crammed things to drop. "I don't exactly want to wear a t-shirt with someone else's face on it."

Alexis, apparently, found this to be amusing, since she couldn't help revealing her teeth in her disgusting smile. "Oh. So I guess you'll end up with nothing then." she shrugged. "Whatever. Have a great time tonight trying to dye your hair a normal color."

With that mean remark the girls left with laughs, leaving Allen to stand alone in front of her locker with a nasty look on her face. Oh...how she wanted to just chase them down and burn their hair off with a cigarette lighter. Then who would be the one with the 'normal' hair? Allen sighed; not that that was going to happen. Well, she didn't exactly want something like that to happen either. Sure those girls were wicked and filthy, but it wasn't enough to make her want to murder them. Though it wouldn't have been that bad if it happened either.

Allen shook her head as she slammed her locker shut which more force than needed. No more emo thoughts. She had to get out of here quickly, otherwise she would be late-again-for her job as a servant. The girl checked her watch as she sprinted down the hallways and down the stairs. It was still pretty early. There would be enough time to get to the bus stop.

Allen turned left and headed passed the courtyard towards the soccer field. Everywhere she went she could hear the chattering about Lenalee Lee. Really...was her concert this much of a big deal? People were talking about it like the world was going to end if they didn't go. Well maybe her songs were great, but was it really so great that everyone had to fuss over it? Allen raised an eyebrow as she turned the corner; okay, so maybe she needed to catch up with the latest things. Maybe she really needed to start listening to those catchy pop songs that were overplayed on the radio. Then she frowned-but why would she do that? Just to fit in?

The girl trotted across the green grass-surprisingly, it was pretty quiet today. Allen stood in the middle of the field for awhile and felt the grass bristle against her jeans gently. Geez, someone really needed to mow this field.

That was what she was thinking, until she saw a figure lying on the edge of the field. The girl widened her eyes; it was a guy, and he wasn't moving. He was wearing a bright colored t-shirt with jeans and when Allen scampered over to see if the person was unconscious she recognized the figure. He had red hair.

"Lavi?" Allen blinked as she stared down at the guy. His eyes were closed and he had his arms rested behind his head. She bent down and peered at him closely-was he unconscious or was he just sleeping? Because if he was sleeping then it didn't make any sense, since who would sleep at this hour on the bloody soccer field?

"Lavi!" Allen called again but received no answer. "Are you okay? Do you need the nurse or something?" the girl began to panic as the redhead lay there without movement. "Lavi, are you alright?! Do you need medical attention? I think I should get the nur-"

Suddenly the figure stirred and a hand grabbed Allen's arm. "What do you want?" the redhead blinked open an emerald eye and gave her an angry glare. "Can't I just stay here for one freaking minute and not have somebody..." his voice trailed off when he peered at the girl. "Wait, what the fuck...._Allen_?"

He let go of her arm and she scratched her white hair in confusion. "I'm sorry!" she laughed, relieved that he was alright. "I thought you were, well, dead so I was going to get the nurse and have her help but you didn't seem to be moving so..." her voice faltered. "Sorry for startling you."

Lavi's glare faded into a random grin. "If I had been dead then the nurse wouldn't have helped, Allen." he laughed much to her surprise. Allen scratched the back of her head; funny how his expression changed so quickly. First he had been glaring at her like she was his mortal enemy, and now he had a cheerful look on his face. The girl blinked-even though he was smiling, she could still tell that it wasn't sincere.

"Erm, is there something wrong, Lavi?" she asked uncertainly. Maybe she shouldn't even have minded his business. But then, she had never sensed an aura so dark around him before, so something had to have been going on. "I mean, you don't look so..." she stared at him. "Great." Though by great she meant emotion-wise, since he was still probably one of the hottest people she had ever met.

Lavi stared at the girl intently for a moment. Then he let out a sigh. "So you noticed, huh?" he groaned. "Looks like it's really getting to me...I mean...why should I even care?! It was just some stupid little breakup..."

Allen blinked in confusion as the redhead shook his head. "Breakup?" she repeated slowly. "What breakup?"

Lavi's mouth suddenly dropped down into a gape. "Wait..." he trailed off as Allen rubbed her head."You're joking, right?"

"Well, I usually don't joke around somebody who looks like they just got hit by an ice cream truck."

Lavi pouted. "Jeez, I don't look _that_ depressed, so I?" he frowned. "I mean, I'm kind of sad that I broke up with her, but I don't care that much!"

Allen sighed. "Broke up with who?" she asked once again, wondering why she couldn't just leave already. "What's going on?"

Lavi studied her closely for a long moment. Then he spoke in a low voice. "You really don't know, do you?" he finally said.

"Erm, no? Should I know everything about you? Would that make you feel more comfortable?"

The redhead shook his head slowly. "Man, and I thought the whole school knew about this shit." he let out a sigh of happiness.

"Well I don't." Allen concluded. "And I have to get going now. So if you cheer yourself up you might want to stop sleeping on the soccer field. I'm sure mattresses are way better-"

The girl stood up from a kneeling position and turned to leave, but suddenly Lavi grabbed her arm tightly. "WAIT!" the redhead practically cried. "STOP!"

"I have to get going!" Allen told him as she tried to pull her arm away from his iron-grip. "Please let go."

"I will, I swear." Lavi promised but his hand was still around the girl's arm. "Just five more minutes, kay?"

Allen blinked. "For what?" she stared down at the popular red-haired kid, still wondering how he had managed to climb his way up the social charts. Because even though he was hot, his mental capacity and way of speech clearly needed some work. She wasn't trying to be mean-she hated being mean-but it was quite true. What kind of guy just grabs you by the arm and begs you to stay to listen to his story?

"Alright, so listen." Lavi muttered as he released of Allen's arm from his grip. "Man, I still can't believe you don't know this-" he then received an annoyed look from the girl-"But _anyway._" the redhead gave her a tight smile. "This morning, I broke up with Alexis."

Allen stared at the redhead. Usually her brain worked pretty well, but it just shut down at the sudden information. It was just too much to take in. Wait...Lavi had been dating _Alexis_? Had something like that even _existed_? How come she had never heard of something so _absurd_?! That was... "So you were dating Alexis." She repeated slowly, praying that her brain wouldn't explode of disgust right there. Jeez! Lavi was such a nice boy, so what was he doing with a Wanker like _Alexis_? That was way more than just slightly sad!

"Well, I guess it makes...sense?" Allen managed to squeak out after a long moment. Well, she supposed it did. After all, she was the one of the popular girls at school and he was the most popular guy, so well...it was a logical but disturbing couple.

"You're probably the only one in this school who doesn't know that." Lavi pointed out.

Allen huffed out an breath of annoyance. "You have quite a big ego." she informed him. The redhead just smiled sheepishly.

"You just really need to keep up to date with the rumors." Lavi gave her a playful wink.

"Yeah, but you're help with that is fine."

Lavi chuckled. "I know." he replied. "But Allen, I'm really confused. I was the one who dumped her, since you know, nobody would ever wanna dump a hottie like me, but yet I'm still feeling empty. Is that strange?"

The British girl gazed down at the redhead. She wanted to say something, but she couldn't. After all- not being in many herself, she wasn't exactly the relationship expert. So how the heck was she supposed to help the most popular guy at school get over some girl who liked to make fun of her? "Well..." Allen blinked. "Why'd you dump her then?" then she instantly wanted to slap herself. Wasn't it obvious? That Alexis girl was such a _brat_! Of course Lavi would have broken up her with her! She would have _too_ if she had been a guy! Geez!

Lavi rubbed the back of his head. "She was annoying." the redhead answered simply. "She had an argument with me because I waved to another one of my friends, who happened to be a girl. She's was just so clingy, you know?"

"Erm." Allen smiled uncertainly. She had no idea what was going on at all. Except now she knew why Alexis was in a worse mood than usual. "Oh. Well... I hope you find a girl that's a billion times better than her." the girl told him brightly.

Lavi laughed. "Allen, is that all you can say?" his eyes twinkled. "Man, you're so simple!"

The girl raised an eyebrow. "I'm the simple one?" she almost wanted to laugh. "Lavi, you're the one that said you wanted to become best friends with me so we could sip cups of tea and play Harry Potter together."

Lavi laughed again. Allen couldn't help noticing that he seemed to be much more cheerful now. "I wanna do that though!" the redhead pouted, then his expression suddenly lit up. "Oh-hey Allen! Are you free tonight?"

The girl gave him a suspicious look. "Erm...maybe?" she answered, even though the truth was she was completely free. After all, you never knew what this guy was up to, so it was probably better to keep information a secret around him.

"I'll take that as a yes then." Lavi smiled as he took out two slips of paper from his pockets. "Listen Allen," he said. "So um, tonight I was going to take Alexis out to see the Lenalee Lee concert-" he rolled his eyes- "But now that we've broken up, I have nobody to take." he held out a ticket to her. "Will you go with me?"

Allen glanced down at the tickets in his hands. Should she mention that Alexis was going to go anyways without him? Hm, probably not.

"I can't go." she answered flatly.

Lavi looked disappointed. "Aw, why not?!" he cried.

"Well, I don't really _know_ you..."

"BUT WE JUST TALKED!"

Allen rolled her eyes. "Yes Lavi, for five bloody minutes." she pointed out, receiving a pout from the guy. "You're still a practically a stranger to me."

"It's not like I'm going to blindfold you and chuck you into the back of my truck!" the redhead exclaimed. "Come 'on, Allen! I mean, do I look like the type of guy who would do something like that?"

Allen stared at the redhead as he placed a hand on his hips with a hopeful look. Then she glanced up and down at him, and her gaze drifted from his one pierced ear to his black headband, and finally to his eyepatch. "Erm... yes." was the slightly shaky answer.

Lavi rolled his eyes. "I know I look like a pirate, but not all of them are bad you know." he sighed when he noticed where Allen's gaze was. "I mean, come' on! You can't just leave such a poor, hopeless dude to spend his Friday night at a concert by himself!"

"Well, you could just go with your other friends." Allen pointed out. "Aren't you friends with everyone in the school?"

Lavi groaned and clutched locks of his fiery red hair. "Yeah, but every time I talk to them they say the most boring shit ever!" he complained. "Come ON, _Allen_! I even got a meet n' greet!"

"What's a meet n' greet?"

"You know, when you get to meet the star? Which means that I got us tickets to MEET Lenalee Lee?"

"Well, I don't like Lenalee Lee." was the blunt answer.

Lavi gasped in shock. "Wh-what?!" He almost screeched. "You don't like Lenalee Lee?!"

Allen scratched her head. "Erm, no." she smiled sweetly. "Is that a problem?"

"Ye...Ye..." Lavi's voice was shaky. "Ye..Ye-yes that's a problem!" his gave her a look of horror. "I-I'm going to _make_ you like Lenalee!"

"W-wait-" before Allen could say a complete sentence, the redhead had pulled her shoe off and was already halfway across the field. "W-wait! What are you doing!" the girl yelled as she tried to keep her balance on one foot, careful not to step on the grass. "Come back here!"

"I'll GIVE YOU YOUR SHOE BACK IF YOU GO TO THE CONCERT WITH ME!" Lavi yelled from the other side of the field, Allen's shoes dangling by it's shoelaces in one hand. How he had made it over there so quick the British girl had no idea, but he was defenitly getting on her nerves. Honestly, what the heck was _wrong_ with this guy? First he had seemed as unhappy as a crow, and now he was threatening to do take her shoes if she didn't go to some stupid concert with him. Oh, how she just wanted to give him another eyepatch!

"Lavi, come back here and nobody gets hurt!" Allen demanded as she stood on the edge of the field with a look of anger. Taking somebody's shoe was probably the worst way to make them go to a concert with you, seriously. "Do you hear me?"

Lavi plopped himself down onto the grass lazily. "Um, what did you say?" he pretended not to hear as he played with her shoes in the middle of the field. "Did you say that you'll come with me?"

"NO!"

Lavi shrugged. "Well then, I'm afraid I'll be keeping this wonderful item." he grinned as he began untying the laces one by one much to Allen's dismay.

This guy...he was bloody manipulative. She didn't like it one single bit. "Lavi, give it back!" Allen ordered frustratedly. "I need my shoe!"

"And I need you, baby!"

Allen stomped her foot on the grass. "I mean it!" she yelled furiously.

"Well, I mean it too."

"SERIOUSLY! STOP THAT!"

"Stop what?"

"You little-" the white haired girl clenched her teeth together as she watched the redhead smile at her toothily. "You bloody little..." then she gave up. Ah heck, it didn't even matter anymore. Going with him probably wouldn't do any harm-after all, he had already proved that he was a retard by doing such childish things, so she was probably going to be safe. Really, how was a retard going to be dangerous? "FINE! I'LL GO WITH YOU!"

Lavi sat up immediately. "Wait, you will?" his voice brightened.

"Well if you give me my shoe back, then maybe I will."

Lavi sat back down on the grass as quickly as he had stood up. "No Allen." he shook his head in disappointment. "I want a one word answer that suits my taste."

The girl shot him a heated glare. "I'll go!" she hissed. "Is that good enough?!"

Lavi grinned and stood up. "That's much better." he purred.

Allen let out a long sigh as the redhead trotted over to her and handed her the shoe-but not before giving him a dirty look first. "You shouldn't control people's lives like this." Allen told him as she put her sneakers back on and tied the laces quickly. "You really shouldn't."

"But it's so FUN!"

Allen suddenly had the urge to dip his head into the toilet. Quite inappropriate, but maybe this was what Yu Kanda felt like towards everybody all the time. She was finally starting to understand people better.

"Anyways," Lavi flashed another smile as he recieved an angry stare. "I'll pick you up at seven, alright?"

"I'd rather you not."

"Or I could just, you know, take _both_ of your shoes this time."

Allen quickly took a step back further from Lavi, just in case he did that annoying thing again. That steal-the-shoe-and-run-away-until-she-agrees-to-come-with-me-to-some-stupid-popstar's-concert thing. The redhead chuckled when he saw the fear. "Aw come on Allen!" he frowned. "You already agreed, didn't you?"

Allen stared back at the redhead in consideration. Lavi's eyebrows were furrowed together and his lips were falling into a pout. His bright emerald eyes reflected somewhat...sadness she supposed. And it was real sadness too. Then she raised an eyebrow. Why would he be sad though? He had practically everything that a teenager wanted-the looks, the popularity...everything. So why was he asking _her_, Allen Walker, to come with him to a concert?

Allen sighed. "I'll give you my number." she decided, and suddenly the green eyes lit up brightly. "But-" she warned-"Do _not_ call me every five seconds to ask what_ Wacky Backy_ means!"

Lavi blinked in confusion. "Huh?" he laughed. "Wacky Backy?"

"Nevermind."

Sometimes she didn't understand why she agreed so easily to things.

* * *

"Yuu-kun! Where are you going?"

Kanda spun around rapidly at the call of the name he detested, ready to stick mugen into whoever had dared call him by his forbidden first name. But his glaring expression relaxed a bit when he saw that it was just Tiedoll-standing near the door to his office with a confused look.

"...." the dark-haired teen stared at his adoptive father. It was probably obvious, but he had been trying to sneak out of the front door to avoid questions like these. He really wasn't expecting to get caught...he really wish he _hadn't_ got caught, since right now he was headed towards Lenalee's concert and the last thing he wanted was for that old man to find out.

"Why are you in such a hurry?" Tiedoll blinked innocently at him as he just stood there. Damn...he had to prevent the guy from knowing where he was headed to, since if by any chance Tiedoll found out then he was probably going to be stuck listening to bad imitations of Lenalee songs for the next month.

"....." Kanda remained silent. Then he said the first word that popped into his mind.

"Che."

"Yuu-kun!" Tiedoll gasped in shock and took an offended step back. "Don't you dare Che me! Tell me where you're going this instant!"

"...." Kanda tried to think of someplace that wouldn't seem suspicous. "I'm going to...the aquarium."

Then he wondered what the fuck was wrong with himself.

"The Aquarium?" Tiedoll raised an eyebrow suspiciously. "Yuu, I know you don't like looking at fish. Especially clown fish. Tell me the truth."

Kanda gave the man a chilly glare. "Who says I fucking don't?!" the Japanese man snapped as he grabbed his coat from one of the servants-screw remembering his name-and stormed out of the front doors as quickly as possible. He didn't want to be so disrespectful to the old man, but right now it was probably the only thing that worked in the current situation. The only thing that could save himself from hearing Lenalee Lee songs for the next month or so.

"Do you need me to drive you there?" the servant asked nervously as Kanda quickly walked out of there.

"Che, I know how to drive, dumbass." the teen retorted as he rolled his eyes and got to where his black BMW was sitting. Those servants were so annoying it wasn't even funny; everyday they would ask him if they needed help with this and that...honestly, he wasn't disabled! The next retarded thing they were going to ask was probably going to be 'Do you want me to help you eat?' or 'Do you want me to wash your hair?'

Kanda snorted as he got in the sleek black car. True; that was a servant's job, but did they really have to be_ that _irritating? With a little sigh he started the car and glanced out of the dark tinted windows; Tiedoll was standing in front of the door with a disappointed pout on his face. Kanda rolled his eyes as the gates opened. He drove out of the driveway quickly, desperate to get out of there even though the place he was headed to wasn't much better. But unless he wanted to receive a couple of strong kicks, going to the concert was probably the best option.

* * *

"So, what do I have to do next? Do I have to deliver food again?" Allen wanted to know. She was also quite nervous for the reply though- after all, the incident last time hadn't exactly ended prettily and she was afraid she might make the same stupid mistakes again.

Chaoji shook his head. "No." he answered much to her happiness. Bloody Brilliant! Now she wouldn't have to mop soba off the floor like last time! "Nobody is home." the fat man told her. "So all you have to do is mop the floor on the West Wing of the second floor."

Allen blinked. Well...she supposed that wasn't nearly as bad. In fact, mopping floors sometimes could actually be fun-especially when they turned as shiny as a mirror. Then she liked to make retarded faces on the floor. Right, that was one of her hobbies. "I'll get to work right away." she answered as she picked up the wet mop and began dragging it across the marble floor. The girl raised an eyebrow as she worked though; she didn't get why they even needed to be clean; the floors were already shiny enough to blind somebody. In fact, they had probably already been mopped yesterday by some other servant, so why did they have to be wiped again?

"You better hurry up." Chaoji said as he checked his watch. "Ten more minutes and then you leave."

_Thankfully_. Allen thought as she made little wet circles on the floor. The time spent at the mansion today hadn't been as bad as last time, but she still had had to scrub a few more toilets and wipe some windows. Apparently though, Daisya and Kanda weren't home, so it was a...good thing. She was now tired of dealing with those two creeps-one was a clown that dressed like a clown and the other one was a samurai look-alike that had obvious anger management problems. So really, you wouldn't have wanted to be there either unless all you wanted to do was stare at Kanda. She had to admit though-he was good looking. But that was it.

After what seemed like another hour of hard work, Allen finally placed the mop down. The floors didn't look that different much to her disappointment-they had already been squeaky clean before, so her cleaning hadn't made that much of a difference.

The girl lifted her head and looked expectantly at her boss.

"You missed a spot." Chaoji commented as he chewed on a piece of ham. The hopeful look on her face vanished instantly and was replaced by a curious look. Wait a second...where did Chaoji keep all of his food? Because every time he was there he would always take out a random piece of meat from somewhere without leaving the spot. Allen blinked as he chewed slowly. Maybe he hid food in his pockets. And if it wasn't his pockets then it was obviously somewhere way worse. Allen shuddered; but gross! Who would do _that_?

"And there too." her boss noticed as she mopped as hard as she could. Allen gave the fat man a light glare before using all of her strength. Jeez! How clean did they have to be if they were going to be going throught the exact same process the very next day?! The girl shook her head angrily. Rich people were such muppets.

Chaoji made an unimpressed noise. "Looks like you missed another spo-" he told her but was interrupted with the sudden ring of his phone. The fat man unclipped his cell from where it was hung on his belt (who did that?) and flipped it open. "Yeaaaahh....hello?" he licked his fingers. "Uh huh. Uh huh. So, Allen Walker?"

Allen perked up her ears at her own name.

"Alright, fine!" Chaoji looked annoyed as he pressed the button and clipped it back on his belt. Allen noticed that his cellphone was covered with pink rhinestones.

Not strange at all.

"Looks like you can go now." Chaoji sighed. "Apparently some dude is waiting for you outside the gates. I didn't know you had a boyfriend."

Allen flushed slightly. "It's just a friend." she told him embarrassedly. Actually, Lavi was just some creepy stalker who claimed to be her best friend when she barely knew him, but of course she wasn't going to tell Chaoji that.

"And laptops can fly!"

Allen quickly placed the mop down. "Goo-Goodbye." she mumbled, desperate to get out of there. Sometimes she wondered if Chaoji had ever taken a class called English back when he was young, since everything he said never seemed to make sense. "Thanks again!" she called as she walked hurriedly past the long hallways and all the paintings on the walls.

It took forever to get to the front door. After she finally managed to make her way to the large white doors that the servants held open for her, she could already see a car waiting outside the gates. "Thanks." she muttered as the servants smiled at her. The gates automatically opened when she stepped out and she sprinted over towards a Mustang. Apparently Lavi liked things that matched, since the car was the same shade of red as his hair.

"Allen!" the redhead greeted as he hopped out of the car. "Nice to see you again!"

"Erm...hi." the white-haired girl answered uncomfortably. She couldn't believe that this was even happening. Or how she had gotten herself into this.

"Is that all you can say?" Lavi complained loudly as he held open the door for her. "Aren't you like, happy to see me?"

Allen stood there for a moment. "Sure." she replied as she got in the front seat. "I'm so happy I could just_ die_ right now."

The redhead studied her thoughtfully for a moment before driving off. "You didn't meant that in some other way, did you?" he grinned as he turned the wheel and got out of the rich neighborhood that Tiedoll lived in.

"Well, I'm pretty sure I did, since you practically forced me to come with you!" Allen protested, but unfourtunatley he just laughed.

"I'm sure you'll like it in the end." Lavi chuckled, his eyes glued to the road in front of them. Allen rollled her eyes as he continued to drive in silence. She glanced out of the window-the streets were crowded with heavy traffic-it was going to take them quite a while to get to their destination, much to her dismay. She placed a hand on her chin as she stared out the window and at the bright lights covering the roads. It was getting dark out already and she didn't like it one bit.

"So is that where you work?" Lavi interrupted her thoughts with a question. Allen lifted her head up and blinked at him.

"Huh?" she said stupidly. "You mean...oh! That mansion? Yeah. That's where I work."

Lavi whistled. "That's a pretty nice environment." he commented.

Allen let out a sigh. "Oh, you don't know how nice it is." she told him. _Wait till you meet the people there_. She thought darkly. _They are all so 'nice'._

"It must be." Lavi went on without noticing the hint of sarcasm in her voice. "Seems like the place that some famous star would live in."

"Like Lenalee Lee?"

"Yeah. You know, somebody really rich and famous." Lavi smiled for a second and turned to her. "Okay, so after tonight, your opinion on Lenalee will totally _change_."

Allen wrinkled her nose. "I don't think it will." she answered skeptically. "It's not that I have anything against her or anything...it's just..." her voice trailed off for a moment as she searched for the right words. "It's just...she's like the other million of stars out there. I can't really tell the difference."

Lavi frowned. "But she is so much cooler!" he pouted as he pressed a button and turned on the radio. Allen almost wanted to groan-as if those catchy pop songs weren't played enough; he just had to turn it on right before they were going to listen to them for a whole bloody night! The girl gave him a glare as a familiar tune started playing. Lavi gave her a wink as she crossed her arms in frustration. Honestly...right now she wished that this car didn't come with a radio. But sadly, that wasn't possible because all cars came with a radio. Unless your car was built in the 19th century of course.

"Oh my God!" Lavi nearly squealed as another beaty song came on. "It's _Steal my Innocence and then my Heart _by Lenalee Lee!!!"

Allen let out a sigh as she peered out of the window. "Steal my innocence and then my heart?" she raised an eyebrow. "Who would name their song that?"

Lavi didn't seem like he cared though. "_Baby I never forgave you, for stealing my Innocence and then my heart_." he sang. "_How could you be so cruel, I never thought you that you were a_ _thief_. _But still, you took my Innocence and then my painful_ _heart_."

Allen almost wanted to puke right there in his car. But since that would have been pretty messy, she just rolled her eyes and turned to look out the window again. Lavi didn't seem to notice-or maybe he didn't even care-since his singing just got louder much to her dismay.

For the rest of the ride neither of them said much-the car was filled with singing from the radio and and the redhead himself, so Allen just remained silent and stared out of the window the entire time. She sighed as a speeding car shot past them. Why was she so easily manipulated? Honestly...why had she even agreed to this? The girl shook her head; now she had to survive the torture of sitting in the car of the most popular guy at school with the company of Lenalee Lee songs...how fun!

After another twenty minutes or so, the streets were beginning to seem alot more crowded. She figured that it was probably because of the people going to the concert.

"I need to find a parking space." Lavi said as his eyes scanned the area in hope for a place to park. "Damn it's crowded..."

"I think I see one over there." Allen pointed to an empty lot in the shady corner of a back street.

After they had parked in what seemed to be a disgusting shady area for rapists and pot smokers, Lavi stopped the car and hopped out. Allen glanced around wearily and opened the passenger door, hoping that a rapist wasn't going to hop out of the walls and attack her. Quickly she followed behind Lavi and after a long minute if lining up they finally made it into the giant round building.

"If you get lost, just look for my hair." Lavi gave her a wink as he tried to push past all of the people.

"I will." Allen promised as she tried to squeeze past a crowd. She had never been to a concert before, so she didn't exactly know what to do in a situation like this. Wow...there were so many people here it was just insane! She didn't know that Lenalee Lee was that popular! But that was probably because she barely watched TV. Well...maybe from now on she needed to keep up with teenager news. "Lavi, where are we going?" she yelled over the noise of the hall.

"I got us a meet n' greet, remember?!" Lavi shouted back. "I'm trying to find where to go though, since we're VIP!"

Allen almost stopped. "So we're going to meet Lenalee Lee?" she nearly fainted in the middle of the floor.

"Yup! It's awesome, right?!"

She stared back the grinning redhead, not even bothering move aside the giant crowd. Had she ever mentioned that she got star struck very easily? Especially when it was in front of an international popstar who had been on the top of the charts more than a billions times? "Erm..." was all she managed to choke out.

"Allen, you need to loosen up!"

"You're right." The girl let out a depressing sigh as she gave the redhead a sad look.

"I do."

But she also needed to pray to God.

About not fainting in front of Lenalee Lee tonight.

* * *

"Sir, I'm afraid we can't let you in."

Kanda stared at the two bodyguards dressed in black who were standing in front of the door that lead backstage. What in the flying fuck did those muscles mean by not letting him in? The Japanese teen glared at the men. Hell, did they think that he _wanted _to be in this disgusting place full of screeching fans and showbiz freaks? No, he just wanted to save himself from receiving endless phone calls for the next twenty years, thankyou very much. But clearly those bodyguards were too busy loading their guns to notice that.

Kanda's eyes narrowed into dangerous slits. "Why not?" he asked, the question coming out as a hiss.

One of the bodyguards-the balder one-gave him look like he was supposed to _know_ why. "Sir, we must make sure that Mrs. Lee is well protected." he answered a matter-of-factly. "So if you're looking for autographs, please know that she will not be signing autographs tonight unless you have a V.I.P ticket."

The Japanese teen almost choked. _Autographs?! _Then he shot them an icy look. Sure those bodyguards were huge, but well...he had mugen. And with that sword around, the size of the enemy didn't matter that much. "I'm not looking for _autographs _from_ Lenalee_." he said quickly, afraid that those words might give him cooties. Well...you never knew. "I just need to meet her backstage."

"So you can what?" the bodyguard sneered. "Stare at her boobies and ask if you can be her husband?"

Kanda stared at the bald man. Honestly...he didn't how to react to that. Was he supposed to be shocked? Well…he was never shocked. Then was he supposed to be furious? Well...probably. "What the fuck did you just say?" he said in a freezing voice. "Do I look like I want to be that girl's husband? Do I look crazy enough to you to live the rest of my life with Komui's little sister? No, it's alright-I would like to keep my head. So if you would like to keep yours, I suggest you let me in right now."

The bodyguard leaned close to him. "Dude, did you just threaten me?" he sounded surprised. "I mean, I understand that you really like Mrs. Lee, but most fans don't try this hard."

That was it. Screw not using violence-from the years of experience Kanda had learned that it was the best way to solve problems. But wait...what the hell? The Japanese teen shook his head as he dug into his pockets and reached for his cell phone. He had completely forgotten that he had the girl's number. Well that was sure a not so smart move. And he had gotten angry over nothing.

He was just about to pull out his cellphone to call her when suddenly one of the bodyguards tackled him onto the ground and pinned his arms down. "What the fuck are you doing?!" Kanda hissed as the man hit him with the strength of a bull. "Get off of me-"

"He's reaching for a gun!" the bodyguard cried as he slammed Kanda onto the hard floor. "Quick! Bring him down!"

Before he even had the chance to touch mugen, Kanda found himself pushed onto the floor with arms bent in an odd position. "What the fuck are you doing?" he demanded as the man took ahold of both arms. Seriously…what the hell were those two brainless bodyguards doing? Did they actually fear that he was some stalkerish fan who was after Lenalee Lee? Because that was probably the last thing that he was.

"Sir, we do not wish to harm you." The bodyguard told him in a low voice. "But if you are a threat to Lenalee Lee-"

"Get your fat ass off of me." Kanda snapped, giving the man's stomach a slight kick. He could have easily beaten those hunks up, but the last thing he wanted was to get into more trouble. Tiedoll wasn't going to be very happy if he heard that he had once again kicked the crap out of a person, and Kanda wasn't exactly in the mood to fight either. "Let me get my cellphone."

"Your cellphone?" the bodyguard blinked as he rolled off of him and let him stand up.

Kanda rolled his eyes, dug into his pockets, and pulled out an expensive-looking cellphone, swishing it in front of the bodyguard's face as he dialed the number. "I have Lenalee's number." The dark-haired teen said coldly, brushing some of the dust off is shoulders. Those damn bodyguards…thinking that everything in the world was dangerous. Hell, they would have probably tackled some boy asking for ice cream as well with no hesitation.

The men's eyes widened in surprise as Kanda put the phone on speaker. "Lenalee?" he spoke, clearly sounding annoyed.

"Kanda?" the popstar's voice rang out through the halls as clear as a crystal, causing the bodyguards to take a step back. "Are you here?"

The Japanese man gave the bodyguards a piercing glare, satisfied that he had proven them wrong to take him down like that. "Yeah I'm here." He answered monotonously. "And you know what just happened?"

"...what?"

Kanda gave the men another glare of victory before speaking, fulfilled by the looks of fear scrawled across their faces. "Your bodyguards attacked me." He informed as the two men gave him pleading looks. Che-_now_ they were acting like this. What about five seconds ago when they had tackled him onto the ground? Humans were so disgusting.

Lenalee sounded shocked. "They did?" she said in a horrified tone. "Ka-Kanda, are you alright?"

"Che."

"Oh my god…" Lenalee sounded apologetic. "I'm…so sorry. I-I'll fire them if you want me to!"

Kanda smirked while the two muscular men gave him begging looks upon hearing this. Yeah, he didn't like the feeling, but he practically had their jobs-the rest of their _lives_-under control. And now they were crying for it. Crying-_pleading_ to him for forgiveness. Kanda rolled his eyes as one of the bodyguards went down to his knees. He was human himself of course, but sometimes he didn't understand those creatures and their society at all. It was all about power and money, and whoever had the most of that could easily manipulate the lives of others. He could, of course, easily have used it to his advantage, but…he didn't like toying with other people lives. Not now.

"It's alright." He decided. Maybe he did have an ounce of compassion in him after all. "You need these bodyguards to protect you when _real _stalkers come."

Lenalee laughed over the phone. "Okay!" she chirped. "Wait there! I'll go open the door for you."

"No, it's fine." Kanda told her as he glanced over at the bodyguards, who were looking at him like he had just saved their lives. Which he did. "Your bodyguards will let me in."

Quickly hearing his words, the two hunky men dipped their heads and opened the door leading backstage. "Thank you." One of them whispered as Kanda walked through the door.

The Japanese man just shot them another dirty look. "Make sure the next time you attack someone, it's somebody who deserves it." He hissed icily as he walked through the doors and into the dark hallway leading to the dressing room. He had just saved those men's jobs, something that he usually didn't do. After all, he was Kanda-known to be a cold, blue-hearted man…since when had he cared about the safety and welfare of others? In the society you fought to stay at the top, and he had learned it the hard way, so clearly the next time he wasn't going to save some room for kindness in his heart.

Kanda walked into the brightly-lit dressing room, the lights a bit too bright for his liking. It was filled with make-up artists and hair stylists, all getting the international popstar ready for the performance. "Che," he said as a girl carrying a blow-dryer nearly ran over him.

"Kanda! You're here!" Lenalee cried happily as she hopped over. "I was so scared that you weren't going to come!"

The dark-haired teen stared at her for a moment. She already had all her makeup on and was wearing barely any clothes-something that a lot of singers did nowadays. He still couldn't understand why Komui had agreed to let her go into showbiz-what she was wearing could barely be called 'clothes.' It was more along the lines of glittery cloth. Kanda coughed. Yes, she looked like she had ripped off the skin of a disco ball and was wearing the scraps. "Aren't you performing in fifteen minutes?" he wanted to know.

Lenalee smiled. "Yup!" she said cheerfully. "But before that, I have to meet the V.I.P ticket holders!"

Kanda snorted. "Just make sure they don't pull your hair off." He warned. After all, those fans…even_ crazy_ wasn't the right word to describe those freaks.

Lenalee laughed. "That's more likely to happen to you." She winked, tugging gently at his ponytail much to his annoyance. Ever since they were little, that girl would make fun of his long hair-he was pretty used to it by now, but it was still quite irritating.

He was about to say something rude when suddenly the doors opened and the bodyguards walked in with a couple of figures behind them-probably the V.I.P ticket holders. He couldn't understand why radio stations and magazines gave away Meet n' Greets when the stars obviously didn't want to meet their screeching fans. Then he sighed. Well, maybe showbiz was a tough world-you didn't get what you wanted all the time.

"Che, have fun trying to get rid of your new stalkers." Kanda retorted as the singer quickly bounded over towards the fans. He walked over towards the leather couch in the dressing room and plopped himself on there, not even bothering to glance at the V.I.P ticket holders. Che, they were probably just some wannabes who looked up to Lenalee a lot.

"Oh my god, hi!" Lenalee greeted as Kanda rolled his eyes. She didn't have to act so friendly…he knew she was pretending to be excited towards whoever was over there. In her mind though, he knew that she was probably hoping that the Meet n' Greet would end soon.

"Holy crap, HI THERE!!!!" a screeching voice cried. "THIS IS SO FREAKING EXCITING! I'M LIKE, YOU'RE _BIGGEST_ FAN!"

Kanda shook his head in disgust. Those fan guys...couldn't she realize already that they were just after her boobies?

Lenalee laughed. "Why thank you so much!" she said as she turned to another person. "And you are...?"

"Allen Walker. Pleased to meet you."

Kanda perked up his ears-he hadn't even noticed the name. It was the sound of her clear, disgustingly familiar voice that forced him to glance over. And he suddenly wished he hadn't, because standing there, talking to Lenalee Lee with a slight flush on her cheeks, was the girl with the white hair that had spilt soba all over him. The girl who worked as a servant at their house. The same girl with the scars all over her face- _Allen Walker._

Kanda stared at them in shock.

It certainly was a small fucking world.

* * *

YAYZ!!!! THEY _**FINALLY **_MEET!!! ALL FOUR OF THEM!!! WOOOT!!!

lol, I don't even know why I'm excited since **I'm** the one thats writing the story, but ANYWAYS, from here on it's going to get a little more mysterious and confusing. Also, I know that the main pairing for this story is obviously AllenXKanda, but how do you guys like other pairings? Like nothing _weird of _course(lol,CrossXRoad) if that's what you're thinking, but more along the lines of LaviXLena. And for the Lenalee haters out there...well...RAWR! She's not that bad. I'm definitely not a fan of her, but she's really fun to write. Especially the loud parts. XD

So consider it! I don't really care much about those two anyway. And please take the time to check out the poll on my profile...It'll take you five seconds and it'll really help! ;)

**THANKS AGAIN TO EVERYBODDYYYY!!!! THANKYOU VERY MUCH!!! 3**

And reviews are more than welcome!.....if you know what I mean. -_wink wink nudge nudge_-


	7. Crystallization

PREVIOUSLY.

_"Allen Walker. Pleased to meet you."_

_Kanda perked up his ears-he hadn't even noticed the name. It was the sound of her clear, disgustingly familiar voice that forced him to glance over. And he suddenly wished he hadn't, because standing there, talking to Lenalee Lee with a slight flush on her cheeks, was the girl with the white hair that had spilt soba all over him. The girl who worked as a servant at their house. The same girl with the scars all over her face- Allen Walker._

_Kanda stared at them in shock._

_It certainly was a small fucking world._

* * *

-_7_-

"Kanda, what are you staring at?"

The Japanese teen was speechless. And he hadn't expected to say anything either at what-or _who_-he had just seen either.

Sometimes expressions were all you needed to realize that the current scene was not exactly a pleasurable one.

"KAN-DA!" Lenalee yelled as she walked over and tugged on his ponytail. Usually he would have made a threat to that, but at the moment, he was too shocked to talk. And shocked for him would probably equal a faint in human action...not that he wasn't human himself.

"Kanda, don't tell me that girl over there has captured your eyes!" Lenalee pouted. "You said you were going to marry _me_, remember?"

He didn't bother mentioning that it was only because she had threatened to dye his hair pink if there was objection. Instead his gaze rested on Allen Walker, who was standing there with a stunned expression on her face. "K-kanda?" the white-haired girl stammered in confusion. "Is that you?"

He rolled his eyes in annoyance. "No, it's Tyra Banks." he answered sourly, wondering why he used so much sarcasm. "Yes it's me, you idiot!"

"Really?" Allen blinked with artificial innocence. "I wouldn't have been able to tell the difference."

Kanda shot up from the couch that he was resting on. The one that had felt pretty comfortable-that is, before this freak came in and ruined everything. "Say that again?" he threatened as he leaned his face down closely to the girl's, who didn't move or flinch at all. She just made another innocent face like she usually did and stared at him with those wide gray eyes-much to his annoyance.

"OH MY GOD, DID SOMEBODY JUST SAY TYRA BANKS?" a voice suddenly screeched, causing him to whip around and glare at whoever had dared interrupted their little staring contest. It was just some redhead wearing an eyepatch though, who was bouncing around like a maniac.

"WHERE? WHERES TYRA BANKS?" he screamed, causing the makeup-team in the room to turn and stare.

"Lavi, please calm down." Allen said with a tinge of a sigh in her voice. "I-"

The redhead suddenly stopped dancing and peered and Kanda. "Wait, who are _you_?" he wanted to know as he squinted at the teen. "You a hair stylist or somethin?"

Kanda crossed his arms at the Lavi person. "No, but I'll chop your hair off if you fucking talk to me again." he hissed, not caring slightly that he was being as rude as ever. Screw the pretense of shaking hands and introducing, he didn't care who this fan was and right now all he wanted to do was get out of here quickly before something violent happened.

Something that had to do with mugen going down somebody's throat.

The redhead named Lavi just blinked at him in shock. "WHY, EXCUSE _ME_!" he cried in surprise as he took a dramatic step back. "Is that the way your Grade 2 teacher taught to you to talk to a _stranger_?" he gasped for air. "I'm absolutely _horrified_!

Kanda stared at the redhead for a while-he wasn't quite sure of what to do. Was he supposed to ask Allen Walker what the hell she was doing here first, or wonder why she had brought a diseased person along for the ride?

He turned to Lenalee instead. "What the hell is wrong with this guy?" he demanded.

Lenalee shrugged embarrassedly. "Um, they're here for the Meet n' Greet, but-"

"WAIT!" Lavi yelled suddenly as he pointed a finger at Kanda. "I REMEMBER YOU!"

Kanda gave him a calm stare. He didn't know who the hell this person was and why that British girl was here, but obviously this guy needed to go back to where he came from...which was probably the Mental Hospital. "That's interesting." Kanda replied as he turned back to walk back to the couch. That's was it-enough of this crap. He was going to stay in this room for the whole concert-away from these losers-and _nothing_, not even _Lenalee_, would be able to stop him.

"You're the creepy guy we saw at Walmart a few days ago, right?" Lavi went on, flashing a smile. "I totally remember you now. You know, you're pretty rememberable. And I know that's not a word, but you're just totally easy to remember with your long hair and weird attitude."

Kanda just looked at him. He didn't even remember this guy. Wait...they had met at _Walmart_?

He raised an eyebrow. Well, he did recall that he had bumped into Allen Walker that day when he had been in a horrible mood and that there had been some guy who had called him a girl, but..._wait_. He almost widened his eyes. This was the loser that had called him a _girl_?

"See?" Lavi grinned at his nasty expression. "You remember us, don't you?" he winked. "So what are you doing here? Did ya get a VIP ticket too?"

"Nope!" Lenalee chirped in just as he was about to say something offensive. "Kanda's here because I made him come!"

Lavi blinked his emerald eyes. "Kanda?" he pronounced the name as if it felt strange on his tongue. "Kan-da? Kaaaaannnnnda?" then he laughed. "Dude, that's kinda weird."

Lenalee smiled. "Well if you think that that's weird, then you'll freak out when you learn that his first name is Yuu!"

"Yuu?"

"Yup! It so funny, right?" Lenalee giggled as she clasped her hands together. "Imagine somebody saying 'Hey, you' and somebody else calling them rude! Now that's what I call no manners!" the popstar instantly burst into a sequence of laughing fits, causing the rest of the staff in the room to stare. Allen just scratched her head while Kanda tried to hold in a murderous urge, but Lavi actually forced out a short laugh at the joke, since well...she was Lenalee Lee and he was Lavi Starstruck.

"Hm, Yuu?" Lavi placed a finger on his chin thoughtfully as Lenalee clutched her stomach with giggles. "I like that."

Kanda shot him a glare. "Don't you dare call me by my first name again." he growled dangerously.

"Why not?"

"O-oh!" Lenalee offered as she laughed hysterically. "I-I know! Because he's _him_, not _you_!"

She burst into another fit of laughter at the joke that was apparently hilarious, and after a long moment of solo laughter Kanda was beginning to think she wouldn't stop until her manager came in the room and placed a hand on her shoulder.

"Lenalee, it's time for you to go on stage." the blonde man said as she shook all over with giggles. "Don't keep the audience waiting."

"O-okay." the popstar sang as she tried to calm down, which wasn't exactly working.

"Aw, you're leaving already?" Lavi whined as he held up a beaten-looking camera. "But I didn't even get a picture with you!"

Lenalee smiled as she took the camera. "No problem!" she said cheerfully as she went and stood beside him. "Oh, I know!" the Chinese girl suddenly exclaimed. "Reever, can you take a group photo of the four of us?"

Her manager blinked. "Of the four of you?"

Lenalee nodded as she handed him the camera. "Yes, I mean, what's the point of leaving people out?" she flashed another smile as she pulled Lavi and an embarrassed Allen in close with her. "Come'on Kanda, get in the picture!"

The Japanese man just crossed his arms and gave her a dirty look. What a stupid favor to ask for-did he look like he would want to be found in a picture with Komui's brain-dead sister, a redheaded freak, and an annoying girl who had scars on her face?

"Che, I'd rather go to hell." Kanda replied in a rather smooth voice. Sometimes he wondered why he even interacted with humans. They were certainly a pain in the ass, hideous in their own ways, evil behind their surfaces, and most of all, extremely_ annoying_. They just liked to pester non-stop about the most meaningless things.

"Excuse me?" Lenalee said angrily. "You would rather go to hell then take a photo with us?"

"Che, what do you think?"

The popstar placed her hands on her hips. "I think I'll go over there and give your ass a couple of kicks so that you fly over to Pluto, which by the way_ isn't_ a planet anymore._ That's_ what I freaking _think, _you bastard." she screeched as she pounced over and grabbed the collar of his jacket harshly.

"Get the fuck off of me!" Kanda hissed as he struggled to breathe. Unfortunately for him, Lenalee wasn't only a popstar-she was also highly skilled in martial arts-especially the kicking and strangling part of it. Never mind the respect and discipline section-those obviously had been ignored.

"You will take a photo with us!" Lenalee screamed as she pulled his hair. "Otherwise I'll tell Komui that I'm pregnant and it's _your_ baby!

"You disgusting woman!" Kanda spat as he finally managed to pull her off of him. That stupid girl had the most disgusting and violent plans that anyone could think of, and he knew that if he didn't want Komui to come banging on his door at night, then the correct choice would probably be to just get the damn thing over with.

"Fine!" Kanda hissed. "I'll get into your damn picture."

Lenalee's face brightened. "That's much better!" she purred as she grabbed his arm and dragged him into the group picture, where he was forced to stand in between her and Allen Walker.

He crossed his arms and waited for her manager to press the button impatiently-why couldn't Reever just hurry it up already? Was he honestly going to say '1, 2, 3 Cheese?' Kanda grunted; he was almost considering getting out of there until he felt a pair of eyes gazing at him.

"What are you staring at?" Kanda demanded as the white-haired girl blinked at him with her cloudy gray eyes.

Then she laughed-yes, _laughed_.

"Nothing, Kanda." she answered with a bit of a smirk. "I just think you're funny, that's all."

He stared at her in disbelief.

Then she giggled. "You act like such a diva." she told him with a truthful smile. "It's quite fun just watching you."

Kanda stared at her. "You-" suddenly his snarl was interrupted by the sudden snap of a camera, and he quickly whipped around with a glare, but unfortunately Reever had already taken a photo and it clearly wasn't going to be a memorable one.

"Great photo, guys!" the manager, who obviously hadn't even been looking at the camera, complimented as he handed the Sony technology back to Lavi and left the room with the popstar.

"Thanks!" the redhead said as he pressed the return button on the camera. Then his cheerful face dropped into a sad pout when he saw the photo. "Aw dude!" he groaned as he ran a hand through his hair. "What the fuck?"

Allen looked curious. "What is it, Lavi?" she asked.

Lavi let out a sigh as he handed her the camera. "Look at this photo!"

Allen blinked as she scanned over the screen. Then the silence was interrupted by a laugh. "I like it!" she said in disagreement, forcing a drop of curiosity out of Kanda. He didn't want it to look like he cared, so he quietly peered over the moyashi's shoulder to steal a glance at the camera; then he suddenly had the urge to murder the retard he called Reever.

The picture looked like it consisted of a few three year olds-Lenalee, Allen, that guy named Lavi, and..._himself_. To be honest, he looked the worst out of all of them-his face was scrunched up into a nasty glare worse than usual and it was no doubt, directed at the moyashi, who was smirking back up at him. Then his gaze drifted over to Lavi-he looked like he had just found 50 bucks on the ground and he had his arms draped across Lenalee, who looked like she was about to go smooch the guy taking the photo.

Kanda sighed; what a bunch of idiots they were.

"Can you take another one?" Lavi complained but Reever and Lenalee had already left the room. Realizing this, the redhead quickly checked his cellphone and gasped.

"Oh no!" he cried. "The concert is going to start in five minutes!" quickly, he fumbled through his pockets and pulled out two tickets. "Allen, where are our seats?"

The British girl examined the tickets carefully. "Erm, well..." she said. "We're V.I.P, so our seats are probably somewhere at the front." then her cloudy eyes glimmered. "Ah ha! Row One, seat 34!"

"Then we better freaking hurry!" Lavi said as he grabbed her arm and the two shot out of the dressing room, leaving the other teen to stand there alone in dismay.

Kanda furrowed his eyebrows.

His seat was Row One Seat 35.

A light sigh filled the room.

Sometimes being V.I.P wasn't always a spectacular thing.

* * *

Lenalee's long-awaited concert was about to start.

And everyone's eyes, including Allen's, were focused on the shimmering stage that ready to be lit by bright electronic components.

That is, until a certain figure forced the girl to drag her eyes away from the stage and stare up instead.

"Kanda?" she blinked in surprise as the familiar teen glared down at her with his arms crossed. "W-what are you doing here?" then a strange thought immediately struck her, and she didn't even have the slightest idea why. But she said it out loud anyway. "Wait." she deadpanned. "You're not stalking me, are you?"

The Japanese man didn't reply.

Instead, he just lowered himself onto the seat beside hers and focused his dark eyes on the stage, where the bright colors of the spotlight reflected in his pupils.

Allen huffed out an angry breath of air, clearly annoyed by his actions. "I don't really care whether you talk to me or not," she frowned, "But I just wanted to let you know that you really are a jerk!"

She let out an angry sigh as she turned her head back towards the platform, and soon silence towered over them.

"Che."

Allen gave him a glare, knowing that it wasn't nearly as threatening as his own. But she did anyway.

"How many times do you say that a day?" she wanted to know, and she really did this time. She wasn't trying to be insulting-she was actually wondering how many times Kanda used that word-or if is was even a word- since that seemed to be his catchphrase.

_Che_.

Kanda didn't reply once again, and she almost felt a desire to smack him until the Japanese man suddenly turned around and spoke.

"Where did he go?" he asked, cold eyes drifting over the empty seat beside hers.

Allen blinked in surprise. "Who?" then her puzzled expression changed. "Oh, you mean Lavi? He went to spend a penny."

Kanda raised an eyebrow. "He _what_?" he repeated, obvious confusion scrawled across his face.

"He went to the bathroom." Allen explained, unable to control herself from giggling over his expression. "Or _restroom_, as you guys like to call it here."

Kanda stared at her oddly. "It's much more normal than spending a penny." he answered awkwardly and silence drifted over them again.

Until Allen broke it.

"So how do you know Lenalee Lee?" the girl asked curiously.

Kanda gave her a look of suspicion-well, this girl certainly didn't seem like the type to go screaming for an autograph at midnight in front of their house, but...he stiffened. You never knew. Those fangirls had a interesting way of hiding their true forms.

"She's a childhood friend." he finally answered in a blunt voice. It was quite a dangerous reply but he put some trust into it.

"Childhood friend?" Allen widened her eyes. "With Lenalee Lee?"

"Che, she might be a star but she's still human." Kanda rolled his eyes. "I hate people who think everything is a huge fucking deal."

"...I know." Allen laughed. "Sorry. It's just really surprising I suppose. I mean, I've never even _met_ someone famous, never mind having a celebrity friend!"

"What do you think of her?"

Allen blinked. "Who? Lenalee?"

Kanda rolled his eyes and decided not to be sarcastic. "Yes Lenalee, you idiot."

"Well..." Allen placed a finger on her chin and considered the question for a while. "She was much better than I expected. The way I thought it, celebrities aren't supposed to be so down to earth and kind. She totally blew me away when she talked with that compassionate voice!"

The guy raised an eyebrow.

"Che, you make her sound like a god." Kanda snorted. Or goddess. Whatever, god or goddess, her responsibility was definitely starting wars. And ones with lots of strategy.

Allen sighed happily. "I'm so glad I met her though." she smiled. "Otherwise I would never have known what a great person she was."

Kanda almost choked right in his seat.

"Oh my god, the lineup for the bathroom was SO freaking LONG!" a sudden voice both caused them to whip around. Allen smiled as Lavi pushed his way towards the seat beside hers. "And as if THAT weren't bad enough, some retard just HAD to be a budger."

"That's horrible." Allen commented. "I hate people who budge."

Lavi clutched his hair like he was trying to rip it out. "I KNOW!" he complained loudly, but not loud enough for the screaming auditorium.

Then he seemed to notice that there was somebody sitting beside them.

"Oh look, it's yu!" he laughed as he wiggled a finger towards the pissed-off teen. "What are yu doing here?"

"He is also V.I.P." Allen explained cheerfully.

"Really? Awesome! Now we can have some brotherly bonding time together!" he turned to Kanda, who had a murderous gaze on his face. "What do you say, huh?"

Kanda turned to the redhead calmly. "How about my fist and your face have some bonding time? Together?"

Lavi pouted. "Oh, Allen help me!" he cried as he clutched the girl's arm. "I'm so scared!"

Kanda raised an eyebrow in distaste, making the decision to not reply as the lights dimmed and the whole auditorium transformed into a deep shade of violet.

Shrieks, squeals and screams filled the auditorium as a figure they were all familiar with walked across the stage. Allen hunched her shoulders uncomfortably as the people behind their row yelled like it was 2012. Since she was probably the only one in the room not knowing what to do, she just clapped politely, which earned a strange look from Kanda.

The dark-haired teen snorted at her manner, but was sort of surprised. At least there was somebody else who didn't start screeching their lungs out at the mere sight of Lenalee. Though on the other hand, Lavi was going wild-screaming so harshly that the color of his face was starting to match his hair. He could tell even in such dark lighting.

"ARE YOU GUYS READY?" Lenalee squealed, causing more excited yells from around the stage. "ALRIGHT, ON THE COUNT OF 1, 2, 3..."

The sound of the drumming began as Lenalee twirled her microphone in her hands swiftly and smiled charmingly.

_Did I ever tell you that you were going to be_

_mine mine mine mine _

_No differences about us matter 'cause love is_

_blind blind blind blind_

_I've got my eye on you, boy, _

_you can run but can't hide_

_or you can always try but then cry_

_from this love that's got us entwined_

_I don't give a bam about destiny but_

_it certainly feels like certainty _

_that once I've got my arrow in you_

_we'll be together, forever, and ever not never_

_and if you don't agree then you _

_better think twice because _

_Did I mention that you were going to be_

_mine mine mine mine_

_Our pasts don't matter because love is_

_blind blind blind blind_

_I won't let the branches trip me on the way_

_and defintely not the traffic blockin this place_

_mean, look at her, then look at me_

_she's just a tree_

_a big stumpy tree keepin' you from lovin' me_

_a distraction, a fraction of the more distractions_

_coming along this road, but boy it don't matter_

_because you will always know that you will be_

_mine mine mine mine_

_and it will be me and you and only you if love is_

_blind blind blind blind_

Allen sat there quietly and just listened to the song, wondering what to do with the strange lyrics stuck in her head. She hadn't listened to many Lenalee Lee songs before-in fact, the only times she ever actually 'listened' to them was when she was at the grocery store shopping and one of them happened to pop up on the radio. Not that she had ever paid much attention to the lyrics before either, since she was always busy trying to compare the prices of different produce or reading the label on the back of a can of ravioli.

But she had never noticed how weird the lyrics were-they didn't even make sense. She's just a tree...? Allen frowned. That wasn't even descriptive. In fact, in English class, that was probably the first step to take if failure was the destination. Honestly, even She's just a hideous, dry, rough tree who was sobbing silenty in the howling wind of the night would have earned at least some marks. But she's just a tree? She so wished!

Allen sighed as Lenalee sang the next song-the one called Crystallization that everyone was going bogus over. She glanced over towards Kanda's seat to see if he was enjoying this in any way, but unsurprisingly, he wasn't there. Allen rolled her eyes-he he could have at least gained some manners and excused himself when he was leaving. Not that she had expected him to, with him being the Kanda that he was and everything.

"Lavi, I'm going to go get a drink." The girl said as she got out of her seat. The redhead didn't even bother to glance at her as he happily sang along, clearly having memorized all the lyrics to each song.

Allen snorted in amusement. If only the girls knew.

After managing to squeeze her way out of the auditorium, she finally arrived at the concession stand and ordered a coke, giving the guy his money as she took the drink and squeezed her way out of the tiny lineup.

Allen took a sip of the refreshment-she had to admit, it was nice after listening to that puzzle of a lyric back there. She definitely liked Lenalee, but had to confess that her lyrics were not the most understandable. Or maybe she was the only one who didn't get it. Allen sighed-probably, it always worked that way, plus she never got these things anyway.

The girl made her way back to the auditorium, but stopped halfway, not really sure if she wanted to go sit there for another two hours and try to decode the lyrics. She was just about to change direction to the restrooms when a sudden force slammed into her, knocking the coke in her hand onto the wall with flying strength. Allen shrieked and raised her eyebrow in surprised annoyance as the drink dripped from the wall and splattered over the floor, a small portion of it on her face and hair.

"At least this was better than that time with the soba." she sighed as she picked up the container and waited for an apology.

"I'm deeply sorry." It was a woman, quite young, though much older than her.

"Oh, it's alright."

"Here is twenty bucks, get yourself another drink." the woman replied as she handed Allen a bill and left quickly, pushing her sunglasses up nervously as she stalked off.

"Um, but-" the lady was nowhere in sight when Allen tried to say something, since you were really supposed to comment when blessed with twenty dollars from a complete stranger. Even if they did happen to run into you and spill your coke that was worth two bucks.

"Your mom." Allen said randomly as she took some napkins from the stand and cleaned up the floor. She felt that she had to say something to overcome the awkward moment. "Well, I guess this is my unlucky day." she decided, and frowned as she realized that she was talking to herself, seeing as there was barely anyone there near the concession stand after the concert had started.

"Che, more like lucky." a deep voice sneered. "You just got a twenty from her."

Allen rolled her eyes and glanced up, mentally asking herself if she could get away with chucking a wet napkin at Kanda. Then she studied his dangerously sharp face, glaring at her cockily, and decided not to.

"I wouldn't call myself lucky for getting coke in my hair." Allen pointed out as she chucked the napkins in the garbage instead of at his face.

"Maybe it'll dye that white hair of yours brown, moyashi."

Allen sighed. "If I'm a moyashi, then you're Sex Change Barbie." she told him. "Oh look kids-Barbie changes gender! Use your tools to remove all the unnecessary parts, but remember to keep the important ones! Batteries not included."

"Shut up, baka moyashi." Kanda hissed, though she was surprised that he hadn't threatened to make Chaoji sit on her or something. Because if so, she would rather die under the blades of mugen.

"What are you doing out here anyway?" Allen asked. "You're supposed to be at Lenalee's concert."

"I escaped." Kanda shrugged, crossing his arms. "Though I think I should be asking you that."

"Oh. Well, servants get thirsty too."

"That's why we have toilets." Kanda smirked.

Allen let out a breath of exasperation. "Look, if your done being a wanker-"she paused. "Wait, let me rephrase that. Since you're never going to stop being a wanker, you can get stuffed. I'm going to the restroom to wash this off. Which does _not _include using water from the toilet."

"Get stuffed." Kanda scoffed. "Che moyashi, stop being so British."

_Only if you stop being yourself, _Allen replied with mental lameness, since she didn't have the energy at the moment to deal with him.

Instead, she went to the bathroom, took some paper towels, and rinsed the dark drink out of her hair. She had partially hoped that Kanda was right-that the coke would dye her hair a deep shade and she could finally become normal. But the other part of her just wanted to be herself-different-and neglect mockery like she usually did.

Allen stared into the mirror as she dried her hair with a towel. A pair of dusty eyes peered in reflection from the mirror. She couldn't imagine who she would be without the white hair and the scars on her face. It was ugly, but that was just who she was. Not everyone could be born to look like Lenalee Lee. Plus, if she had the choice, she wouldn't have wanted to be beautiful either. It may have sounded like she was just trying to fake confidence and pretend to accept her looks like those annoying girls from those self-esteem campaigns, but there really was no point in being pretty when you knew a man named Cross and lived a life like her own.

Sighing, she ran a hand through her hair and walked into one of the stalls, right before the door to the washroom opened.

"Do you have the special effects ready?" a voice that seemed to be talking on the phone asked.

Allen blinked. She thought that she had been the only one here, since everyone else was at the auditorium. Or supposed to be.

"Yes, when the lights go out, everyone will be surprised. They willl think of it as a special effect. Then we make our move on her."

The girl raised an eyebrow. Well _someone_ was being really stupid and didn't have the slightest clue that they weren't alone in here.

"We must get the necklace back. That is the most important thing. Do whatever you can to bring it back. Kill anyone who gets in the way."

There was the snapping shut of a phone. Allen held her breath and lifted her feet up on the toilet seat slowly, but there seemed to be hesitation in the air. She could tell. The speaker was trying to decide what to do with her. The speaker knew she was on the toilet seat.

The unsureness in the air disappeared as the washroom door opened and shut. Allen released a breath of relief, and slowly opened the stall, talking a glance around the room before sneaking her way out. Her fingers were trembling, but then laughed as she realized how retarded the whole thing was.

But it had been real. Somebody was out to do something to Lenalee Lee. And it didn't make sense, because that was pretty much equivalent to Bambi getting murdered. Who want-or have the heart-to murder Bambi? Hence, who would want to have anything to do with Lenalee, the star best known for her cuteness and charm? For revenge? But the worst thing she had ever done, or could do to someone was probably make a mean remark about their clothes not being designer, and Allen couldn't even imagine the sweet girl doing _that_.

Carefully, she poked her head out of the washroom, expecting a gun to be pointed at her head or something, but instead, she was faced with a nasty glare from an unpleasant man.

"K-Kanda?" Allen squeaked, annoyed with herself from feeling relieved, because him being there didn't make it better than any other murderer.

"Che, what? You going to order me around and tell me to get the fuck away from the washroom too?"

Allen frowned at the random hiss of a reply. "Um, no thanks, I'd rather live." she said. "But there's someone else who needs to live as well, and I don't think the direction she's headed to currently going to help with that."

"The hell are you talking about, moyashi?" Kanda demanded with raised eyebrows.

"Lenalee Lee. She is in danger."

This only caused the furrowed eyebrows to lift higher in a doubtful motion, drawing the exasperation out of Allen.

"Look Kanda, that woman I bumped into? She wasn't just an ordinary klutz who accidentally bumped into me and spilt my drink. I think she's out to put Lenalee in danger."

She wasn't sure if she heard or saw right, but she could have sworn she just noticed Kanda's mouth curve up into a smile, which only flamed her annoyance. Yes, it was extremely hilarious that someone actually had enough spare time to target Lenalee Lee, but the part that killed off the humor was that it was real. Plus amusement didn't suit Kanda very well, which only made things worse.

"The only reason I'm even telling you this is because I thought you would have a part in you that actually cares, seeing that she's your childhood friend." Allen snarled. "But I guess I'll have to deal with the assault of someone whom I've just met twenty minutes ago alone."

She was just about to stomp off angrily when Kanda grabbed her arm, sending an huge zap of electricity down her entire bicep. Allen flinched and pulled away instantly in pain, but he didn't even notice and only snorted. "If you're going to save the concert, you might want to head towards the right direction." he suggested boredly. "If there really were attackers, where else do you think they would go besides the dressing room?"

Allen nodded slowly, rubbing her arm as Kanda stalked towards the back doors, where they had first entered to meet Lenalee Lee. Was the guy a human generator or something? Because that shock was not the usual zap one received from another due to friction or other means. It was almost frightening, and he didn't even have the slightest clue over what he had done.

After a few turns down the hall, they finally reached the back doors. A gasp initiated from Allen when she saw the two bodyguards sprawled unconsciously across the ground. There were slight bloodstains on the walls, but not enough to explain whether the guards were still breathing.

Kanda rolled his eyes. "Looks like you were right, baka moyashi." he said, as if two partially dead bodyguards was a huge pain in the ass.

"I do wish I wasn't." Allen said hollowly, unable to take her gaze off the two men on the ground. If she had been some normal girl, she would have probably screamed and smashed herself into the nearby wall with horror, but since the majority chunk of her life had been spent hanging out with Cross, she was more of an insane gambler who couldn't care less about a few drops of blood.

"Che, too late." Kanda determined, crouching down. "They're as dead as Tiedoll's pink shorts that I burned."

After a moment of weighing dead bodies over an old man wearing pink shorts, Allen came to the decision that the first was probably the more important. Although Tiedoll wearing pink shorts worried her a great amount. "I can't believe this!" her voice barely came out as a whisper. "What's going on?"

"Some losers who are after a spazztic girl and two unbreathing pieces of fat." Kanda replied bluntly as he ripped a gun from the bald one's belt.

"Erm-"

"You'd probably scare them all away with your white hair and freakish face, but here's something to protect yourself with."

Allen took the pistol from his hands more roughly than necessary, glare not leaving his face. "Thankyou." she said clearly. "How very kind of you."

"Che, what? You _are_ freakish, and don't me expect me to deny it."

"Wow, the double stab really wasn't necessary."

Rolling his eyes, Kanda positioned himself in what seemed to be an attacking position. He looked mismatched with the background as his sword gleamed under the light. The guy almost portrayed a samurai with his graceful movements and intense glares. Well, a girly one.

"Here we go." Allen mumbled.

Without warning, Kanda gave the door an impressive kick and sent it flying open, revealing a room buzzing with shock.

Allen stared. Then she stepped into her past and future.

* * *

-**_insert huge paragraph of apology here_-**

I know I haven't updated in 10 months, but I had writers block for 9 of them. That's how bad the damn disease can get. If you're still reading this, you are amazing and I grant you immunity for Writer's Block for the rest of your life so the same thing doesn't happen to you. Warning-no gurantees. My magic isn't that great.

Anyhoo, after such a long period of time, I wouldn't expect the people who were following this story before to continue reading. I mean, i usually lose interest in a story after such a long time with no updates. I also get pissed off and demand "What makes ya think ya deserve another chance on this page?" when the story does update. But if ya look on the bright side, at least this wasn't an authors note saying how this story got canceled. i hate it when a story FINALLY updates after a long period of time and it turns out it's a note of disappointment. i bet thats what alot of you thought it was. Well HA, it wasn't! WOOOTTTT!

Now about the actual chapter-if it was confusing, ya might wanna go back and read all the other chapppppteerrs...ahhhaa...or you could just wait until the next chapter, where things will clear up. The last line was my attempt to be mysterious, but if you can figure it out, wohoo. It starts with the letter r.

**Anyways, thanks SO much if you have been keeping up with this story over the year(s)...we've finally gotten past the dark ages...-sniffles- so please drop of a review, it's probably the only way to save Never, Again!**


	8. Holdin' On Together

YO BUDDIES:

Hope you are all having a wonderful Christmas eve, because I certainly did enjoy writing this chapter. It's been WAY too long, so I don't know how this chapter is going to compare with the other ones, but I tried. Anyway, Merry Christmas and I hope you enjoy!

Thank you to the supporters and reviewers who have motivated me to continute this story. You guys are amazing. Seriously I was reading your reviews this morning and I was like "GOTTTAA WRIITTEE FASSTTEER!" just for you guys. Just for you guys. Just. For. You. Guys.

SALADS

* * *

-_8_-

_An ambiguous black form glimmered from the distance. _

_"Look Master Cross!" Allen blinked as she hurried towards the object on the ground. "Somebody lost their wallet!"_

_"Pick it up then, stupid kid." The grouchy man grumbled, shooting a glare from the corner of his eye as he hastily lit a cigarette._

_"I wonder who it belongs to?" Allen questioned as she flipped open the black leather with the naïve curiosity only a child could bear._

_She blinked twice, uncertain of what to do with the content. A faded picture of a man in a military uniform stared back at her with cloudy blue eyes that pierced through her. She was immediately drawn to his seemingly close yet distant gaze, but slowly shifted her eyes on the rest of the items, of which included a credit card, a music store gift card, a handwritten note, and eighty dollars in cash._

_"Find anything interesting?" Cross inquired inattentively, sight fixated on a store window filled with portraits of animals. Charlie's Pet Photography, the sign read._

_"Yeah, I think this wallet is really important to the person." Allen suggested. "Look-"_

_Cross snatched the leather from her hands without looking and threw it up in the air, catching it with one swift hand. "Finders, keepers." his mouth curved upwards, revealing the crooked cigarette resting snuggly between his teeth._

_"Hey, that's not right!" Allen protested as she attempted to grab the wallet from her master's grasp. "That person probably really needs it!" The image of the man in the military uniform flashed before her suddenly. _

_"He needs it eh? Then he can come fetch it himself."_

_The wallet was tossed onto the road before she knew it. Allen gave her master a fierce look before running to retrieve it, but a sudden car zoomed past, barely missing her hand as she fell back onto the sidewalk, stunned._

_More car filled the busy road, all busy driving to their destinations, gliding over the wallet as if it were nothing but a piece of debris._

_"That's unfortunate." Cross commented as he inhaled the smoke deeply. "Hope he gets a better quality one."_

_Allen felt a painful twist in her chest. She had never understood the universality of sympathy. Why was she worried about someone else's possession as if it were her own? Was it compassion, or just selfishness from her inability to tolerate an abandoned object on the wet concrete? The wreck of the leather lay on the road and for a moment she felt a genuine pity for the poor owner. _

_Cross seemed to notice her dilemma. "Get over it." he lifted his head towards the clouds of gray. "Altruism isn't always necessary. You'll figure that out once you get older and see the world in its true form."_

_A raindrop plopped on Allen's cheek, a wakeup call to her deep daze of thoughts. _

_Cross snorted and walked past without so much as a glance at the girl on the sidewalk, tossing his empty lighter in a puddle. _

_The young girl pushed herself up with her wet hands and followed her master, not looking back at the shredded wallet. _

_Sometimes, the closest people were the most incomprehensible ones._

* * *

Kanda was unpleasantly surprised.

Nothing, absolutely nothing.

In the case of two bloody corpses sprawled across the entrance to the dressing room, most would expect to find a horrendous scene. But the room was identical what it had been before the concert-makeup cases in a disorganized heap everywhere, brushes on the floor and glittery clothes resting on the leather sofa. Nothing out of the ordinary.

He glanced down at the moyashi, whose puzzled expression seemed to wonder the same.

"I feel like I should be relieved." the girl stated slowly, gaze scanning the empty room. "But this is...eerie."

Kanda didn't know how to reply. Here he was, with mugen all prepared to battle the enemy, but there was none. And somehow, that not only did not improve the situation but also generated suspicion. He needed to know what the hell had happened here and who the hell did it.

"This is the worst horror film ever." Allen swallowed nervously. "I mean, at least give us some hints like they usually do."

"Che, are you scared moyashi?" Kanda questioned, although he supposed there was no reason for her not to be. Most humans would probably be a little intimidated by a plan to murder a famous popstar followed by two dead bodyguards, but unfortunately, he was a little different from the rest. He couldn't remember the last time fear flowed through his blood-in fact, he had never experienced at all. Fear didn't seem to be in his genes, and he could never understand when people described how much they were scared of something or how much they had been frightened...Kanda had always assumed anger was equivalent to fear until recently, when he discovered that they were completely opposite emotions and ignited different reactions in people.

"What? I know you have your sword, but this isn't exactly a heavenly moment." Allen whispered as she grabbed a lipstick from the counter and inspected the scarlet tube apprehensively.

"Fear is only as deep as the mind allows." Kanda remembered, reciting an ancient Japanese proverb that had somehow lodged itself into his scattered memory.

Allen shook her head. "Not when it's actually there in front of your fac-"

Her expression changed to bewilderment as the door swung open behind them unexpectedly. Kanda spun around instinctively, spinning Mugen aggressively at a sharp angle, missing the target by a sole two inches.

"What are you guys doing in here?" The makeup artist looked rather annoyed instead of shocked by the assault. "Mr. Kanda, please stop carrying that sword around." she complained as she placed the boxes in her arms onto the counter.

"Ugh, Lenalee always wants these Evian facial sprays." she rolled her eyes as she pulled out a glimmering white bottle from the package. "They are about as pointless as colored toilet paper."

Kanda and Allen stared perplexedly at the woman as she muttered agitatedly to herself, but their stares quickly jumped to the door she had entered from.

Kanda bolted out the door in a flash as Allen followed closely behind. The astonishing scene stirred a disgusting mixture of confusion, anger, and most of all, bewilderment in him as he touched the floor to make sure it was not an illusion.

There were no bodies.

"Where did….all the blood go?" Allen whimpered as she clutched her hair in a tangle of disorientation and despair.

Kanda wanted to know the same. Just what the fuck was going on?

"What are you guys doing out there?" The makeup artist called with contempt as she peered outside. Then she seemed to notice their expressions and softened. "Oh yeah. I think security is on break." she checked her watch quickly. "Huh, its about time they changed shifts, this is taking a while isn't it?"

"There was no one here when you came in?" Kanda demanded.

"Nope. I thought it would be quite dangerous too." she leaned in close and whispered. "The fans _really _know their way around here. I swear, they probably have a blueprint of the building and a plan to go with the ambush."

Allen placed a hand to her forehead and released a sudden groan of agony. "Ah…I am not feeling so well…"

"Oh dear…have a seat child. Concerts can be loud, can't they?"

"Sit down, moyashi." Kanda commanded as he glided mugen swifty back into its sheath.

He couldn't quite put his finger on it, but there was something awfully strange about the entire situation, and not just because the bodies were missing. If what the beansprout had stated about the washroom incident was true, and there really was some disgusting psycho attempting to murder Lenalee Lee, then what had thwarted the action? Why had the plan not continued on-what the hell was the plan in the first place?

Kanda gazed at Allen, who was lying with her head leaned against the couch and her hand sprawled across her exhausted expression.

First of all, the victim needed to know.

* * *

"So…no comments about the concert?" Lenalee tried hopefully, but the look of disappointment was clear. "You would like to discuss a serious matter?"

Kanda ignored her crestfallen expression. "Can you think of anyone who would want to murder you?" he demanded bluntly.

"Um, excuse me?"

Allen sighed. "Lenalee, I don't really know how this can be put in a less severe manner, but…"

"Someone attempted to take your life today." Kanda finished casually.

"Um, excuse me?" Lenalee raised a perfectly shaped eyebrow.

"Che, I don't understand what kind of loser would have the spare time to plot a murder against _you _either, but it's true." Then he promptly explained the story of the bodyguards, and what Allen had overheard in the washroom. Much to his surprise, she was interested and not skeptical.

"But….why?" Lenalee folded her arms as she sat shivering on the leather sofa in her private makeup room. The concert had ended and the screaming fans had been forced to leave the stadium, along with Lavi, who had suddenly received an emergency phone call from his grandfather and had no choice but to leave Allen, apologizing profusely as he made promises for next time.

"Well, the woman in the washroom said to get the special effects ready…" Allen furrowed her eyebrows. "But that never happened….so their ploy failed?"

Lenalee looked horrified. "Oh my!" she put a manicured hand lightly against her lips. "This sounds like way too much for a fan to do…maybe somebody actually hates me!"

"She also mentioned something about a necklace…"

"Neckace?" Kanda turned. "You didn't bring that up before."

"No…I just remembered." Allen released a long sigh, the gravity of the night suddenly weighing on her. "The woman was talking about a necklace on the phone and how she had to have it back…whatever she meant, it sounded important. For all I know, it could even be the motive of this murder attempt."

Lenalee glanced at Kanda uncertainly. She began to tap her fingers against the armrest nervously, pondering if her deductions could be correct. "Oh my god…" Lenalee placed a hand on her forehead. "Kanda, please help me. It can't be...no-it can't be because of _that_."

Allen blinked in confusion as the samurai debriefed. "Lenalee called me the other day and told me that she found a necklace on the floor." he clarified. "Apparently a woman was looking for it and found out that Lenalee was the one who took her necklace."

"But that's crazy. All this over a…?"

Lenalee groaned. "Ughh…I knew there was going to be something wrong!" she cried as she cover her face in anguish. "You should have seen that woman's face! The way she looked at me basically said: "Return the necklace, or I'll kill your bodyguards and ruin your concert." Why am I so stupid? Do they offer hint lessons? I think that being able to read facial expressions would be more useful than attending a lame hot yoga class that barely burns any calories-"

"I don't know guys." Allen spoke uncertainly. "Are you sure this is what it's about? I mean, it just doesn't seem relevant. Perhaps the woman was talking metaphorically?"

"Let's see the necklace."

Lenalee remained still for a moment, then she reluctantly stood up and reached into her purse.

"Oh dear."

Kanda raised an eyebrow.

"I left it in my other bag." Lenalee sighed. "It's in the studio."

"Go get it tomorrow." Kanda commanded. "I'll look into this further."

Lenalee forced a rigid smile and nodded as Allen stepped into the fast paced conversation. "Erm..don't you guys think we should investigate this more?" she suggested passively. "This is seriously too impulsive…"

"Che, impulsive is what will prevent another murder attempt." Kanda scoffed as he stood up swiftly from the sofa. "I'll be going now. Goodnight."

Lenalee let out another long sigh as the samurai proceeded to exit, then she tilted her head and blinked at Allen. "Eh? Is Lavi not driving you home?"

Allen shook her head politely. "No, he left because he had some urgent business."

The pop star's violet eyes sparkled, almost, much to Allen's surprise, a bit mischievously. "Kanda, why don't you drive Allen home?"

Allen flung her hands up in protest as the samurai spun around and gave Lenalee an icy expression. "Well you're certainly acting like you've just been the target of a homicide." he stated breezily at Lenalee's devious acts.

"Um, I'm merely pointing out the fact that Allen needs to get home somehow-"

"No that's alright!" Allen said quickly. "I have a bus pass and-"

Kanda crossed his arms and pierced his blue through Allen's gray ones in consideration. The girl had a point; he probably shouldn't just leave the damn moyashi here by herself. Besides, if Tiedoll came to find out like he somehow managed to with everything, the old man would likely accuse him of being irresponsible and lacking in manners.

"Che, baka moyashi. Lets go."

Allen blinked in surprise as Lenalee clapped her hands together. "Kanda, I love seeing you show kindness!" the pop star praised innocently. "It makes me so happy inside, as if there really is hope in the world!"

"Che, goodbye and don't die." Kanda suggested, turning Lenalee's optimistic expression into a frown.

They left the dressing room quickly, made their way out of the concert building, and onto the chaotic streets. Kanda checked his phone; it was already past midnight yet the city was still awake, blooming with clubbers, window shoppers, and students hanging around the coffee shops.

He furtively glanced at the moyashi, who was struggling to keep her with his quick pace. The city lights cast a dim orange glow on her anxious face as they made their way past the sleepless buildings, drunken groupies, sketchy figures, and finally to his black BMW.

"You shouldn't just park your car on the streets. There have been so many automobile break-ins lately." Allen observed as a guy wearing a black coat strolled past, giving them an evil look.

Kanda shrugged, although he had to admit that he could already sense people lurking behind the alleyways, ready to do something to his car. "My association with Lenalee gives usually gives me unwanted attention." he said. "And I would hate being trapped by her fans in the parking lot."

Allen had to stifle her chuckle as she imagined Kanda threateningly drawing out Mugen in front of screaming fangirls as they formed a line to block the parking lot entrance.

The interior of the car was relatively quieter, blocking the ruckus outside. Allen glanced out the darkly tinted windows as Kanda made a frighteningly sharp turn out of the spot and barely cut the yellow light as it turned red.

"So, how's working as a maid?" Kanda asked, trying to hide his smirk as the neon lights flashed by them.

Allen puffed. "Are you seriously going to ask me that, after what you did last week?"

"Che, it was your fault and you know it."

A moment of silence drifted in the car, and neither of them said anything. Kanda knew what was on both of their minds though, and he was about to initiate the topic to break the awkward silence when Allen spoke first.

"Do you think Lenalee is in grave danger?" She asked, but her expression showed that she was afraid to know.

Kanda paused for a brief second. "Yes." he spoke bluntly. "I have a sense for these things."

Allen raised her eyebrow. "You mean, like everyone else?" she laughed. "I think we all have that special sense. It's called instinct."

"Che maybe, but mine is very…._developed."_

"That must be why you draw your sword so fast." Allen commented dryly. "I don't remember seeing you once without you threatening to kill me with that thing."

"You don't see me drawing it now, do you? Now shut up before I chop that white hair of yours off." Kanda gave her silvery head a glare. "Why the hell is it white anyway?"

"Why do you always act like you've got a spinning sword up your bum?"

Kanda ignored the comment. "Che, I would dye it if I were you."

Allen sighed. "I did when I was little, but the color would always just wash off after a few weeks." Kanda raised an eyebrow. "When I was six I dyed my hair every month for four years so the other kids wouldn't make fun of me. But that was just pointless. You just have to accept who you are. And besides," she added, "Hair color gives you cancer."

"What a waste of time, you should have just killed those kids."

Allen frowned in shook. "What is wrong with you?" she exclaimed. "To be honest, I'm truly worried about my own safety at your home sometimes."

"Che, then don't come to my room and spill soba all over the place."

Allen fumed as she crossed her arms. "Talking to you increased my chances of getting cancer more than that hair dye ever did." she muttered under her breath, which Kanda heard quite clearly.

"I don't usually make pacts with people, but how about we avoid arguing for today?"

"Fine, you teabag. Only because there is a matter of importance to discuss."

"Well the matter of _importance_ is…" Kanda emphasized mockingly. "That we need to know the suspect's motive."

"Seeing that you strongly believe that this whole ruckus is for the necklace," Allen said, "I think we need to figure out the reasons for that."

"Che, you're the one who mentioned the necklace." Kanda grumbled, his hands tightly on the wheel. "What exactly did you hear?"

"Well, the woman sounded really desperate about getting the necklace back…." Allen furrowed her eyebrows in concentrated thought, and then blinked. "Oh! She said that it was the most important thing."

"The only reason a piece of jewelry could be that important is its worth." Kanda discerned.

"Perhaps. Maybe she stole it?"

Kanda closed his jaw in a firm line. The whole situation just seemed to be filled with holes. If she had really stolen a crown jewel worth billions of dollars, she was unlikely to carry it around and drop it so easily, only to let a stranger pick it up and walk away with it. But if it wasn't worth that much, then why else would she go so far for a piece of lost jewelry? He couldn't exactly put his mind on it, but the whole idea seemed so…..

"I just can't believe she would be so careless in the first place." Allen muttered.

Then a strange idea struck him.

"She must have dropped it on purpose." Kanda realized.

Allen stared at him incredulously. "That's bullocks! Do you think those dead bodyguards were illusions?"

"That's the only strange part." Kanda admitted. "But think about it, moyashi. Is it not coincidental that it was _you_ who overheard everything in the bathroom? Also common sense wise, why would she talk about killing Lenalee in a public restroom the first place?"

Allen rubbed her head dazedly, seeming to consider his theory. "Well maybe she seriously thought that the stalls were empty…" then she frowned. "Which reminds me, she said she was going to create special effects as a part of the plan to murder Lenalee, but that never happened. I assumed that it was because we had uncovered her plan and she had to escape, but the makeup artist was in there the whole time and she never noticed anyone come in."

Kanda smirked, suddenly feeling a lot more in control of the clouding mystery. "Che, she never even entered the room, that devious woman. She must have killed the body guards and then left."

"Arghh, this is just getting more confusing!" Allen cried in frustration. "And there's no evidence of anything."

Kanda agreed silently. Tiedoll especially, was never the one to believe something without seeing it. The old man had always told him this was the reason he especially liked to paint; it was different from reality in that one did not necessarily have to witness anything in order to create something. Art could be purely from imagination; one could play with the colors, distort the shapes, and disproportion figures. It was so beautiful, so unlike the truth, because there was none.

"When will it all stop being so absurd?"

Kanda glanced at the moyashi's wishful expression, as if she had gone through too much. The innocence of her childish face was marked by years of hardships and conflicting emotions, which he hadn't noticed before. Her lips were turned upwards, but they resembled a cry for help more than a smile. He suddenly felt like he didn't know anything about her world at all, as if he were merely a stranger passing by.

Allen suddenly blinked her grey eyes at him, causing him to quickly clear his throat.

"Why are you staring at me Kanda? Focus on the road."

"Che, because you're acting miserable."

Allen seemed amused by his observation. "I'm not miserable. I'm just…tired I guess?" she shrugged. "You should tell me a story."

Kanda raised an eyebrow at her hopeful expression.

"Come 'on, don't rich kids have interesting lives?"

The samurai rolled his eyes. He didn't know why he was doing this and what made him do it, but he just wanted to see the moyashi cheer up. That was all. "I used to be friends with this girl, but she got cancer." he stated. "She moved away with her family. And I never saw her again."

Allen, much to Kanda's strange dismay, didn't look any happier. "….Oh. _Oh._ Was it Lenalee?"

"No."

"…Oh."

A moment of awkward silence passed between them.

"What was she like?" Allen finally asked.

"She was very stubborn." Kanda replied. "And irritating most of the time."

"Oh."

"She was fun to talk to." he admitted, almost wanting to slice himself for telling something he had never told anyone to this goddamn moyashi who was sitting his car and acting like she belonged there. "I hated her at first. But then she was….che, I guess she wasn't that bad."

Allen blinked in astonishment. "Wow, I have never heard such a generous compliment from you."

"Shut up, baka moyashi." Kanda growled, but her surprised expression was sincere. "I told you a story like you wanted. Now cheer the fuck up."

Allen's sudden laugh filled the entire car. Kanda stared at her, trying to figure out her manipulative abilities. He suddenly felt strangely satisfied after telling that to her, whether it was because the tension of never discussing the matter was finally relieved or because of the appreciate smile on the moyashi's face…._che_. It must have been the way she was so easily fulfilled, laughing at even the tiniest things.

"Thank you, Kanda. That was nice of you."

The samurai leaned back; she saw through his acts so easily. Perhaps this insight was the reason he found her so strange, as it was something he had never acquired.

"So is that your house?" Kanda questioned the sudden family home that came into view with the number 36318. The lights were on and the rose bushes were well groomed, much to his surprise. He hadn't expected the Moyashi to be living in such an ordinary home, in contrast to his twisted imagination of a leaking shack.

"Master's to be exact."

He raised an eyebrow. "Look, I don't know about this whole Master thing, but it sounds fucking weird."

Allen sighed. "Whether you'd like to believe it or not, I have completely normal relationship with my master." she assured his skeptical gaze. "Well, except for the gun, knives, and abuse. Thank you for the ride and goodnight."

Kanda stared at the moyashi as she shut the door and gave him a little wave before running off to the two-storey family home. Things just got fucking weirder every day, and he didn't like it.

* * *

"So, is there something you'd like to tell us, Allen?"

The white haired girl blinked from where she was sitting under the tree, concentrating on a book on Renaissance painters. Lou Fa and Krory towered over her with their arms crossed, their expressions strangely displeased.

"Oh, hi there-"

"Don't _avoid_ the question." Lou Fa lowered her face so close, and Allen could see her own confusion reflected upon her glasses.

"Yes…?"

Krory sighed in genuine depression. "Allen, we have been friends for quite a while now, so naturally Lou Fa and I have believed that in this entire school of three thousand and forty-one students, the three of us would be quite close, but-"

"WHEN DID YOU AND LAVI START DATING AND WHY WERE WE NOT AWARE OF THIS?!" Lou Fa burst into sobs as Krory instinctively lent her his shoulder, wiping away at his own tears with a pink handkerchief he suddenly pulled out from his pockets.

Allen's groaned and she shut her book, her appetite for Michelangelo's works suddenly lost. Although she wasn't an expert at judging emotions, the stares from her classmates in the hallway this morning were more than obvious enough to inform her of the strange shift at the school. Only she had not suspected such a source of attention to be herself, even when some random guy gave her wink in her Biology class and told her "Congratulations, slut."

"Allen, you must have noticed already," Krory managed between loud sniffles. "But you have deeply upset your _friends_, if that word means anything to you. Why must your dating Lavi be a secret kept from all of us? I just don't understand."

The girl clutched her white hair, suddenly gaining the urge to murder the redhead. She squeezed her fist tightly into a clump as she stretched her lips into a sweet smile. "Well, I was also not aware of the fact that I was dating Lavi. Where did you hear such bullocks from?"

Lou Fa raised an eyebrow. "Some kids from our school saw you guys together at Lenalee's concert, so they told Alexis. Now everyone knows."

"By the way, Alexis wants revenge." Krory whispered as he glanced around the courtyard nervously.

"Well, it's true that Lavi asked me to go to the concert with him yesterday afternoon as _friends_." Allen emphasized firmly, extinguishing her murderous rage. "But neither of us like each other that way and the only reason he asked me was because he was quite upset over his breakups and all that."

Lou Fa rolled her eyes. "Oh yes I'm sure the reason he asked you out of all the girls here is because he was just extremely upset. Come 'on Allen, I know you don't exactly have a sixth sense for these things, but don't be dumb."

The heat which formed on Allen's cheeks was red-hot, like a certain individual's hair. "Honestly, he doesn't like me that way." But even her confidence suddenly couldn't fathom why the most popular guy at school held so much interest for her. She had never really thought about it before, it just couldn't be more than a spontaneous friendship…could it? "Alright, it's your choice whether to believe me or not, but if you really wanna dig into it that much then ask him."

"Ask him what?" A sudden voice caused the two to whirl around and Allen to cover her face in moans. But Alexis kept going. "For him to take you on another date? I have to admit freak, that I really misjudged you. Congratulations, you now have my ex boyfriend."

She began a series of slow claps to which her minions quickly joined in, some laughing while others just shaking their heads in utter bewilderment.

"Didn't you guys break up?" Lou Fa took a step to Allen's defense. "This has nothing to do with you, get out of here."

"Um, whoa, unfriendly much?" Alexis as she crossed her hands, her silver chained heart bracelets jingling like a death ringer from one arm. "I'm just trying to give the newest addition to Lavi's collection some advice." she snickered as she turned to Allen sadly. "Well, I guess Lavi must have said some pretty nasty things about me, since I'm the one who actually dumped _him_. But everything happens for a reason, and I didn't want to tell you this, but Lavi is very shallow. He pretends to understand people and act like a normal guy, but underneath that shell he's vain and manipulative."

"Don't act like you know my friends." Allen spoke before she could control herself, but Lavi's wide grin had assembled itself in her mind and at that moment her desire to defend that all-knowing smile was greater than the extent of their relationship.

Alexis laughed in a higher pitch than necessary. "You're more naïve than I thought." she sighed. "Look, I'm just trying to let you know that Lavi doesn't do this _friend _thing with girls. He's had five girlfriends now, and he's used all of them." a sneaky, insincere smile stretched across her face. "That's why I broke up with him. I saw through the little pretense he puts on at school so I told him to go find somebody else to play his games with."

A crowd was beginning to form around them underneath the blossom tree in the courtyard. Curious students turned their heads to watch the commotion as others who were aware of the situation excitedly ran up to find some entertainment.

Allen stood there silently, listening to Alexis's words for once. She didn't know what else there was to say; she didn't know Lavi well enough to be able to defend him more.

"That's up to me to decide." she announced, not just to the Alexis, but somehow to the entire crowd of eyes. "What you tell me might be true, but I…..still like Lavi as the person I know him as."

Before Alexis could make a snaring comment, Allen felt a strong arm wrap around her shoulder and she looked up to see Lavi crouched down beside her, a look of unmistakable anger she'd never witnessed before.

"Spreading rumors again, _Alexis_?" Lavi spoke coldly, his penetrating green stare causing the girl to clutch her arms tightly.

"Why don't you tell her the truth, Lavi? About why I really broke up with you?"

Allen could feel the grip on her shoulder tighten as the students whispered amongst each other, all eyes fixated on the most charming boy at school.

"Allen is too important to me." he simply replied much to everyone's surprise. "And some things Alexis…" his voice was filled with regret. "You need to let go of. You won't understand."

The girl looked like she was about to faint dramatically. "I can't believe this." she muttered to herself. "This is fucking crazy. Lavi, you are one big loser. I can't believe we-we-" she choked on those words as if they were still somehow precious. "we dated. I can't believe it. Why would you do something like this?"

Allen had never quite believed she would live to see this day, but the pain in Alexis's voice was clear. That girl had been hurt somehow, and for some strange reason she was dying inside suppress her emotions.

Lavi however, wasn't done yet. "Just know this, Alexis: stay away from us. We've broken up, our relationship is over, so there's nothing left for you to wreck."

The spectacle ended with a cry from Alexis and as her friends quickly went to comfort her.

"Oh my god, what the hell is going on?" some kid demanded as Lavi whispered quietly in Allen's ear. "Can you come with me?"

Surprised by his nonchalance and sudden closeness, Allen nodded slowly as she followed him from the tree after quickly glancing at Lou Fa and Krory, who stood there with their jaws on the floor. "Where are you taking me?" she asked, to which Lavi replied "soccer field."

The journey felt like forever as Allen felt the gazes of everyone on her, staring in either curiously or shock at two of them walking together. She was relieved when they cut through the trees to the soccer court and nobody was there judge anybody, the tension from their peers dissipated for the moment.

The redhead plopped himself casually onto a bleacher as he folded his arms behind his head. Allen blinked as he turned his head to observe her. "So erm..what would you like?" she asked uncomfortably, but green eyes just stared back.

"Erhh…thanks for taking me to the concert last night." Allen chucked awkwardly. "American concerts are brilliant."

"Allen, what would you do if I wasn't who you thought I was?"

The girl considered it for a moment. "Well who do you think I think you are?"

"Normal, right?"

"Doesn't normal include acting like one's age?"

"I'm being serious Allen. Whatever Alexis told you is probably true, I'm pretty messed up."

Allen smiled at the image of another man, drunken with red hair. "Lavi, I don't know what your definition of messed up is, but I can assure you that I have seen worse."

Lavi gazed up at the rushing clouds and cursed under his breath. "Well Allen…say I was _worse_ than all your previous experiences…" he turned to her. "Would you act the way you're acting right now around me?"

Allen frowned. "Is this what you wanted to talk about? And yes, Lavi, I would treat you somewhat the same…depending on your behavior of course."

Lavi groaned. "Man, that's not good enough."

"Well, tell me; what did you mean when you said I was too important to you?" Allen asked out of curiosity as she blinked at the redhead's frustration.

Lavi tilted his head so that his green eyes were directly staring into her own confused ones.

He didn't smile or frown but simply looked at her as if she were some strange being that had suddenly fallen out of the sky. He paused for a moment in contemplation. "I meant exactly that." he told her.

Allen felt a sudden uncomfortable atmosphere surrounding them. She needed to escape from Lavi's locked gaze so bad that she almost wished she had brought an extra eye patch for him to wear. As much as she didn't want to consider it, she was beginning to wonder if Lou Fa was right; what if Lavi had never sought her out to look for friendship?

The awkwardness was interrupted by the sudden ringing of Allen's cellphone, which surprised Lavi enough to look away. She fumbled for the device in her pockets in a desperate frenzy to escape the strange tension and breathed a sigh of relief as she answered the call. "Hello?"

"Get the fuck out of my room, Daisya!" was the reply from the other end. "H-hello? M-moyashi?"

"Kanda? How in the name of bloody hell did you get my number?"

"Che, how do you think? I asked Tiedoll for it but he was persistent on knowing why, so I told him you stole a painting from my room."

"And he believed you?!"

"Che, it worked didn't it?" Kanda sounded pleased with himself much to Allen's horror. Bloody wonderful, now the man she had to work for thought she was a thief!

"Well what do you want?' she demanded suspiciously and looked over to Lavi to observe a certain curiosity on his previously stern face.

"I want you to come over after school today."

"I don't work today."

"That's why I called you, baka. There's important information regarding…the incident."

"Oh….I see…_oh_. Is…._she_-" Allen quickly stole a glance at Lavi, who looked smugly interested in their conversation. "going to be there?"

"_She_ will be here. Four 'o clock, call this number."

"Erm…alright then. Good bye."

She could hear Kanda's taunting smirk over the phone before he hung up. "Che, British chap."

"So what did Yu want?" Lavi inquired casually.

"I accidentally took something of his."

"Sounds like an excuse to me." the redhead shrugged. "I didn't know Yu was interested in you."

Allen rolled her eyes in exasperation. "He's not. He's like a robot with no emotions except for his beloved sword." she shook her head, feeling strangely unfortunate that she had to hide such an important event from Lavi. "Anyway, I've got to run. I'm...really...glad that we're friends, Lavi."

She got up to leave, but before she could step down from the bleacher a hand tugged on her own. Allen spun around in surprise at Lavi's sudden contact. The heat radiating from his fingers spread to her cheeks, which were growing warmer at his unexpectedness.

"I'm glad we're friends too." Lavi spoke, his expression dead serious. "Allen, sometimes you find things that are precious enough to defy time. Wait, did that just come out of my mouth? Oh what the hell, I know we've only met, but…." his solid eyes suddenly spread into a mischievous grin that lit up his entire face. "I already love you."

Allen stood there dumbfounded at Lavi's casual smile. "Don't just say things like that!" she protested in embarrassment. She knew he only meant to be friendly, but how could he get past himself blurting out spontaneous sentences constantly?

"Awww Allen, you know you love me too!" Lavi let go of her hand and pushed himself up from his spot, jumping swiftly onto the ground from the bleachers. "Anway, see ya around!"

Allen stood there on the bleachers in astonishment as he strolled away into the bushes humming an oddly familiar piano tune. Although there was a blush on her face, and her hands were almost tingling, she didn't feel embarrassed at all by his bluntness. And as strange as it was, Allen felt as if Lavi had naturally told her several times before in the past, as if those comforting words were completely normal.

* * *

"Che, what took you so long?"

Allen raised an eyebrow at the Japanese teen standing against the door with his hands in his pockets. She checked her watch. It was 4:05.

Before she could open her mouth to reply, Lenalee unexpectedly slammed open the door behind Kanda, clearly in a hurry to see her.

"Allen, oh my god." Lenalee cried, flinging her arms around the British girl as Kanda rolled his eyes in irritation. "You won't believe what we discovered!"

She opened her delicate hands to reveal a pink heart-shaped necklace dangling from her fingers. Allen blinked as Lenalee looked over to Kanda, as if the amazement was too great for her to handle and she needed some sort of guidance.

"This is the necklace?" Allen echoed in disappointment. She didn't understand Lenalee's fascination with it; the material looked roughly made compared to expensive designer jewelry and the chain was a thick silver that was far from exquisite.

But then Lenalee gently tugged on the top of the heart, and the necklace suddenly disassembled to reveal a shiny rectangle.

Allen blinked in surprise. She couldn't believe it had been hidden so well as a wholesome part. Only Kanda's careless I-don't-give-a-fucking-poop voice was able to jolt her out of her trance of disbelief and sudden wave of idiocy.

"Che, it was a USB all along."

* * *

Nice taste in jewelry Lenalee. Haha it was always going to be a USB from the start, I couldn't wait to write that last part.

Contructive criticism would _definitely_ help the story going since my only motivation for updating is for those loyal followers out there, so PLEASE feel free to drop a review or message me in private to discuss aspects of the story. Lets try to keep it alive.

Thank you guys once again, hope you're still into Never, Again! MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL OF YOU!

-SALADS-


	9. Sleepyhead

**Hello everyone, **

**Hope the wait wasn't too long! My days have been filled with exams and school stuff, but I had my final exam last week and I AM OFFICIALLY FINISHED WITH SCHOOL! WOOT! So the first thing I did was write again. Now that summer break is officially happening you can be sure to see more updates. **

**I hope this chapter makes your day a little bit better,**

**SALADS**

* * *

The contents of the USB were apparently very important.

Allen noticed with a certain amusement as Kanda's eyes grew a bit wider than usual and his slightly surprised expression seemed to absorb the entire computer screen. She however, didn't feel like sticking her head in between the two individuals, who seemed completely mesmerized by the contents of the deviously hidden tool.

Allen glanced around the plain ivory walls of Kanda's bedroom. This was the first time she had made it into his room without getting into an argument, and that was all due to Lenalee's enthusiastic invitation "Let's go plug this thing in Kanda's computer!" to which samurai had responded with a mild glare. The cold space created by the walls of his lightly toned room created a strange sense of isolation, and the sparse decorations on his desk only accented the solitary atmosphere. She particularly had trouble taking her eyes off the lotus hourglass on his desk, which seemed too real to be digital. The floating bundle of pink petals quivered between the narrowly confined glass.

"Wake up, moyashi." she met Kanda's raised eyebrows with slight puzzlement. He smirked. "There are some things on here that might interest Tiedoll."

Lenalee nodded immediately. "Allen, this is matter of business!" she shot up a finger a matter-of-factly. "And I mean literally. You know Earl and co., right?"

Allen nodded-who didn't? It was one of the top fifty companies in North America that manufactured and sold almost everything.

"Well, oh my god." Lenalee pronounced each word with more emphasis than necessary. "We just found some really weird information about their new concept! Everything on this USB is about their plans for this upcoming year, and that's like totally normal for a cooperation right? But some of the files are about this new product that is completely out of this world, like _really _weird." she glanced to Kanda.

"It's called Noah's Ark." he confirmed with rather dark eyes. "The file mentions the creation of an innovative idea that could drastically change the future."

"A giant ipod?" Allen asked with sudden excitement.

"Che, _Ayepohd_." Kanda imitated in a British accent, receiving a displeased look from Allen. "The file discusses the people involved with this project. And one of them is Cross Marian."

Allen nearly fainted as she pushed her way to the computer screen. There it was, before her very own eyes in tiny robotic font, the writing seemed to take pleasure in messing with her:

_The project will undergo a final inspection in November with the full support of Mr. Cross Marian, who has been appointed the task of leading the product testing and introducing the concept to the public._

Lenalee's eyes softened in sympathy as Allen swore under her breath. "I heard that you two were very close."

"Why yes. We were." Allen smiled through gritted teeth. "I've just been having some _trouble _reaching him lately."

"Che, her fucking master left her for some woman in Las Vegas." Kanda explained. "That's why she has to work as a maid at our house."

Allen crossed her arms without bothering to argue. The ridiculousness of the situation was sad to the point of hysteria. First Cross notified her of his leave through a note written on the back of a ripped out porn magazine, then she had to pay off her debt by working as a servant in a house of lunatics, and now he was exploring his creativity with a billion-dollar cooperation? She felt a sudden twist in her knees as she flopped onto Kanda's leather chair with a groan. Her energy had been drained. She was weak.

"Allen, I'm so sorry!" Lenalee's angelic voice did not help much. "There's got to be an explanation for everything. Like once, I was an hour late to my concert because my driver wouldn't show up, so of course I bawled my eyes out and yelled at him! But turns out he fell into a manhole and was stuck there until the cops could pull him out. I think we really need to step into the other person's shoes and emphath-"

"Tiedoll, now." said Kanda. For once Allen agreed. Perhaps the old man would know more about the Cross's whereabouts, since they had been close friends at one point.

It turned out he was home as the three of them rushed down the stairs and into the office. Tiedoll greeted them with a nod, placing his pencil on his desk beside the sketch he was working on. They presented the absurd information to him, which he responded to by adjusting his red rims in an uncomfortable manner.

"Please, did my master hint at anything the last time you talked to him?" Allen hoped.

Tiedoll took off his glasses and massaged the bridge of his nose tiredly. "That Cross Marian." he sighed, then his face turned serious quickly. "I think it's about time you knew something."

"Che, I knew you were hiding something."

"Yes Kanda, I knew you knew." Tiedoll chuckled. "But I thought it would be better-_unnecessary_-for you to know anything of the past. Now it can't be helped, can it?"

Allen rubbed her arm back and forth in anxiety, disliking the tension before what was obviously going to be a tragic story. What had happened between them and why Tiedoll had to make the atmosphere all ominous by continuously pinching the bridge of his nose in such an awkward manner was beyond her. It was frustrating, and she felt a sudden rush of fury at these people for never being honest.

Tiedoll placed his glasses on his nose slowly. "Well children, to put it bluntly, Cross and I are in this together." he shrugged. "Years back, we were all business partners-Cross, Adam-The Earl we called him-and I. Eden and Earl and co. were one big company, and the three of us were the powerhouses on the market. The enterprise always came up with the most innovative ideas, and we worked very well together as business partners."

Allen blinked at Kanda, who didn't look too surprised. Tiedoll must have told him at some point. But Cross had never mentioned that he was running a company. Ever.

"We all eventually parted out own ways. Adam especially, was coming up with ideas of his own. He said his family wanted him to inherit the family business. You see, he came from a very elite background of once royals who still have quite a powerful status. Rumor has it that they're related to the British Monarchy…well, I was never quite sure. He was always well educated and lead a wealthy lifestyle, and very ambitious indeed. It was probably this ambition and duty to his family that lead him to abandon our plans and switch priorities." Tiedoll let out a long sigh. "A couple of years after we went off on our own, Cross and I discovered something about the Noah family."

Allen blinked. "The Noah family?"

"We always found it strange that their last names were Noah. Perhaps the family has a long history. But a couple of years later, we found out that the the Earl's family was performing human testing."

Lenalee widened her violet eyes. "Human testing!"

"Yes, after Cross and I lost contact with the Earl we began to notice odd things about the company. One day Cross discovered and snuck into one of their obscurely hidden factories and discovered that they were testing chemicals on humans." Tiedoll sighed. "The government knows about this, but they cannot do anything because the Noah family is too influential. Our economy relies on them, so the higher ups pretend to turn a blind eye to their unethical procedures."

He picked up his pencil and circled the tip on the wrinkly paper. "There's an organization called The Black Order." Tiedoll claimed after a brief pause. "Kanda, the Order actually built and funded your school in the early days. Anyway, Cross and I were recruited into the Black Order once they discovered our connections with the Earl. Since then, we've been trying to gather as much information as possible regarding the Noah family."

"The Black Order?" Kanda repeated. "What is that, some fucking spy school?"

"Language, my child! Believe it or not, Black Order Academy was originally built to educate academically gifted individuals who would devote themselves to serving the nation." Tiedoll said. "Now it's an elite prep school, but The Black Order still funds over half of your school activities."

Kanda looked like he needed to breathe while Lenalee blinked with her violet eyes as if she didn't understand a word of it. Allen scratched her head hard. . "I'm sorry, so you're saying that my master is part of this...organization?" she repeated.

"The Black Order is an organization independent of the government." Tiedoll explained. "While it acts on its own, the purpose of its existence is to serve the nation. The government relies on it heavily, as it is much more intricate than both the FBI and the CIA."

"The Black Order." Lenalee repeated with a frown. "I knew I've heard that somewhere before! All those conspiracy theories about some underground organization…..they're true." she gazed down sadly. "My brother is a part of this, isn't he?"

Tiedoll sighed. "We were only trying to protect you. Well, since you know everything now I hope you get a good night's sleep and forget about these silly things tomorrow!" his smile faded as Kanda flashed him a dark look. "Alright, well…" he paused awkwardly. "To be honest, I got no clue on Cross's whereabouts. The last I saw him was a month before he left, and he didn't say where he was going either. Allen…I was told to make sure you didn't get involved in his business."

"It's a bit late now, isn't it?" Allen mumbled in irritation. "So you really don't know anything?"

Tiedoll scratched his nose. "All I know is Cross's instructions in the diary." he admitted rather embarrassedly. "That diary you gave me…you see...erh….well….erhh…Cross wrote that he wanted you to stay in my house so that I could keep an eye on you." he then flashed a blatantly false smile.

"Don't I have a huge debt to pay off? Allen blinked, and then narrowed her eyes. "Hold on a second."

Tiedoll's hands shot up in defense. "Sorry dear, I had to think of a way to keep tabs on you! It would have been strange for me to immediately take you under my wing, so I had to pretend that he owed me debt!"

"The soba spill was because of this." Kanda deadpanned.

"My dear children, don't hate on your old man." Tiedoll shrugged awkwardly. "You should probably admit that my story was quite good eh? Owing debt is so Cross!" he laughed loudly in an attempt to relieve himself of his own guilt.

Allen closed her eyes and she contemplated the possibility of killing Cross with her mind alone. She had suffered under the horrendous odor of Chaoji and worked for nothing this past month, all for the sake of Cross's instructions. There was no debt to pay off-even _worse_-Cross and Tiedoll were in this together. And none of them had known about the existence of this Black Order until Tiedoll had just decided to casually tell them about the adventures of their wonderful youth.

"Allen, believe it or not, Cross does care about you." Tiedoll said gently. Then he looked up in contemplation. "Well, maybe not always. But he wrote in his diary that he doesn't want a useless brat like you to get in the way so I guess that must be saying something!"

Kanda rolled his eyes. "So where has this man gone?"

"He left me a letter saying that he had gone to Las Vegas." Allen said quietly without mentioning the 'ladies' part. "I'm sure that's fake as well."

"Yes, yes, probably…" Tiedoll nodded, then his eyebrows furrowed. "Wait! Las Vegas, you said?" his eyes lit up. "In Las Vegas there's….The Millennium Palace!"

"Ah, that's where all the A-listers go!" Lenalee realized.

"Che, what could he possibly be doing at the Noah family's casino?"

"Other than doing undercover work you mean?" Tiedoll smiled deviously. "Well jolly, the pieces are finally coming together. Cross you'll never get away from _me_."

"Is The Earl currently in Las Vegas?" Allen asked. After all, Cross must have received some important information for him to leave so abruptly to Nevada.

"I think Cross has discovered something there. Yes, that's probably right." Tiedoll nodded enthusiastically at his own speculations. "The Noah family must be building a new project in the area. Or he has discovered one of their factories." he nodded some more. "By the way, their factories are very secretive to the public. Only authorized personnel can access the whereabouts, and a few have true access to the inner workings of their cooperation." Tiedoll chuckled almost admiringly. "Ah, Cross must have joined their side if he's been appointed the task of leading the product testing. The Order ought to be proud."

"That means…" Allen blinked in disbelief. "My master is actually doing work?"

"Well I'd assume its undercover work but yes, Cross is no doubt up to something."

Allen sighed, unclear herself whether it was due to relief or anxiety. The possibility that Cross might be up to something other than women was somewhat uplifting, but if he was on a mission of some sort then trouble was right around the corner. She scratched her head, sensing an overwhelming mixture of responsibility and irritation.

"Oh Allen, I know you must be frustrated!" Tiedoll wiped his forehead dramatically. "But you know how determined your master is, trying to find the roots of evil and saving the world."

Allen nodded slowly. "Well, I'm not sure about the saving the world part, but something is not right." she sighed. "I think I need to find him."

"EH?!" there was the sudden widening of all eyes in the room minus Kanda's. "Allen what do you mean you need to find him?!" Lenalee cried.

"Erm well, now that I'm not actually in debt here, I can probably save up for a plane ticket to Vegas!"

"Baka moyashi." Kanda mumbled.

"Allen I'm sorry but I'm going to have to agree with Kanda on this one." Lenalee protested. "Why would you go out searching for trouble? I mean, isn't Cross like a drug addict or something?"

"That Lenalee, is in fact not true." Tiedoll pushed up his glasses nonchalantly, as if he had been expecting this. "Allen, you grew up with Cross Marian. Naturally I'd assume that no matter how terribly he has treated you in the past, you would still feel a certain responsibility as his apprentice. I understand your relationship with him, so I will respect your decision, whatever it shall be."

"I…" Allen looked to Lenalee and Kanda, one of which seemed worried and the other one giving her a sideways glare. "I know you guys think my master is an arse, and I completely agree. But I feel like he has been training me for something like this…..preparing for something big. I don't know but…..I just get the sense that I should go deal with this. You know?"

"You go girl, follow that instinct!" Tiedoll cheered, receiving a cold look from Kanda. "What, Yu? You ought to learn a lesson from this girl! Look at this perseverance! This courageousness!"

"Che, baka."

Allen sighed. "I know it seems _bahkaw _of me to do this, but I hope you guys can understand. I can't just leave things hanging the way they are."

"Whatever Allen, I can tell that you have already made up your mind." Lenalee pouted. "But this isn't about your stupidity, I mean, don't you get it? It's dangerous out there! Girls shouldn't just travel by themselves to Vegas!"

"Thus, I shall support Allen to the best of my abilities." Tiedoll sniffled proudly, then snapped his fingers. "Chaoji!"

There was a sudden rumbling sound above the room. The floor seemed to tremble as a gust of rotten egg whisked its way into Tiedoll's office. Lenalee immediately covered her nose but didn't make it in time to protect her eyes, which became moist from the sting of the stench.

"YESSSSSSS SIR!" a screech bellowed out amidst the swirling atrocity. The high pitched amplitude of the noise matter cut through the monstrous fog, and the cloud of armpit sauce evaporated to reveal the source of the stench itself, large and proud.

"Chaoji, I have a task for you." Tiedoll's tone was serious. "You shall accompany Allen to Las Vegas and serve as her bodyguard, servant, and ultimate guardian."

"OF COURSE SIR!"

"Bloody hell Lenalee, are you alright?!" Allen cried as she rushed to the popstar's side, who was no more than a shrunken, frightful ball of skin in the corner of the room.

"A-allen, I-I can-can't bre-breathe."

"It's okay Lenalee, just close your eyes. Think of taking a shower of perfume. Imagine being cleansed, pure, and free."

Kanda suddenly crossed his arms and his bangs cast a shadow over his face, looking more dangerous than usual. "There is no way in fucking hell that this arrangement is happening." he growled in a low voice.

"I'm sorry Yu?" Tiedoll put his hand against his ear. "Did I just hear you object to my plan for Allen's safety?" Chaoji rubbed his arm, looking sincerely offended by Kanda's firm conviction.

"Yes, because it is a terrible idea." There was dark gloom over Kanda's eyes as he scanned the room. "You." he glared at Allen, who narrowed her eyes in response. "Baka moyashi, what the hell is wrong with you?"

"Excuse me?"

"And you!" his eyes pointed accusingly at Tiedoll as if the old man were the one responsible for all this. "As the head of this family you should stop your whimsical decisions and sickening enthusiasm."

Tiedoll pushed up his glasses in amazement. "Why Kanda, you're rather opinionated today!" he turned to Lenalee, who nodded in puzzlement. "Hmm, how about we listen to more of your wonderful ideas! Care to share?"

"Che."

Tiedoll smirked in an almost devious manner. "Well, since you seem to be so passionate about the situation regarding Allen's safety, why don't you accompany her to Las Vegas instead?"

Kanda looked like someone had poured a bucket of mud down his throat. "Wh-what did you say?" he shifted his hand to the rim of his katana instinctively in self-defense. "Wh-why in the world of hell would I go with that moyashi?!"

Tiedoll clapped his hands cheerfully, completely ignoring his son's reaction. "Actually, I think that's a great idea! That way, Allen will have someone to accompany her and Yu shall learn the mechanisms of the outside world!"

"Erm-" Allen put her hand up to object, but was interrupted again by Tiedoll's never-ending flow of ideas. "Yu, it's time to get rid of that spoiled attitude of yours!" the old man snapped his fingers, clearly satisfied with his own brilliance. "You will either learn to take some responsibility for the individuals around you or you will stop complaining about my decisions."

"I never said that I would go with that white haired bean sprout!" Kanda widened his eyes, unable to comprehend the sudden turn of events.

"Just look at that attitude! Do you think it is still about what you want? This is why you need to learn things that can't be taught in school." Tiedoll shook his head sadly, deeply indulged in a self reprobation for his child's behavior. Suddenly he lifted his head and the mop of gray hair bounced excitedly. "Well it's all settled then! Allen, don't worry about paying for your plane tickets, I'll arrange everything for you. Just please don't tell Cross when you see him, if he asks just tell him that you murdered my servants one bloody night when you ran away from my home."

Allen's head throbbed. Was the Black Order's motto to harbor irresponsibility in all of its members? At first she had thought that Tiedoll was a complete contrast to Cross Marian, but now she was seeing more common personality traits than she would have liked. Furthermore….she glanced at Kanda, who stood with his head down like a statue. Now she had to somehow travel this journey with that pain in the arse. She had wanted to search for Cross Marian on her own as a way of figuring out the irreplaceable gaps in her life these past years and finding her the purpose of her role as his apprentice, but in the blink of an eye her original intentions had been completely skewed.

"I suppose that is…..fine." she sighed as Tiedoll continued to ramble on about Cross's possible whereabouts. "Thank you. I really appreciate your support, Mr. Tiedoll."

"Ah, no worries at all!" the chairman winked behind his red rimmed glasses. "Best of luck, Allen. You'll do a great deed for the Order if all goes well."

But things just never go as expected, do they?

* * *

"Kanda, I've never seen you like that before!" Lenalee exclaimed as she plopped herself onto the dark couch in his room. The cold leather almost consumed her, absorbing her into its edges.

"Che, what do you mean?"

Her violet eyes reflected thoughtfulness. "Well, I don't know. You're kind of different I guess?" Lenalee shrugged as she attempted to braid her hair. "Ahh, this would work so much better with your hair!"

Kanda blinked in mediocre surprise. He hadn't noticed any difference, and he knew himself better than anyone else did. He gave her a look that demanded an explanation.

"Weeeellllll how should I explain it?" Lenalee pondered. "It's like your outlook on life has changed! You have a certain radiance about you, it's like the bright light has conquered the darkness within!" Kanda crossed his arms and Lenalee rolled her eyes. "Okay, just kidding. But remember that time when you and Alma were arguing over who would grow up to be more successful?"

Kanda remained quiet. He didn't like to talk about the past, regardless of whether the memories were pleasant. He especially couldn't comprehend Lenalee's ability to randomly associate completely unrelated subjects.

"Ah! I guess that's it!" Lenalee smiled in realization. "Every time Allen is around it reminds me of when you were around Alma! I guess it's just the way you act, like you're really pissed off but at the same time passionate about something."

Passionate? Passionate about what? "What the hell are you trying to say?" Kanda demanded.

"I don't really know either." Lenalee admitted. "But I know for sure that you haven't acted this way since Alma was around."

Had he acted differently towards Alma? Kanda blinked. Furthermore, was his behavior unusual around the moyashi? Well, she did get on his nerves quite a bit, so no surprise there. "Both of them are annoying." he concluded.

Lenalee laughed. "You mean _everyone_ is annoying." she reminded him. "Well, you're funny when you're around Allen. I like it. It brings back old memories." she smiled to herself, then gazed up at the ceiling. "Oh by the way, I've decided."

Kanda gave her a questioning stare.

Lenalee giggled. "I haven't had a vacation in quite a while!"

* * *

"Don't worry Timcampy, Miranda will take good care of you."

The puppy barked in protest as Allen picked him up and gently placed him into the crate.

"When I come back, you'll be able to see your master." her eyes narrowed. "Though the first thing you should do is bite his arse off."

"Woof!"

Allen opened her dark brown suitcase, analyzing the most efficient approach to stuffing everything in. She had already said good bye to Lou Fa and Krory in the morning, letting them know that she was to visit Cross Marian, who had contacted her in Vegas. Unsurprisingly, Lou Fa's immediate reaction was to lend Allen her sharpest Swiss Army knife to use as a "greeting gift" for Cross. Her employers on the other hand, were not as sympathetic. Although Cloud Nyne understood the situation with Cross Marian and immediately allowed her to take some time off, her other employer was rather annoyed and complained about the lack of responsibility of his employees.

Allen had also wanted to Lavi know that she would be leaving for a couple of weeks, but the teacher told her that he had come down with a severe flu and would not be attending school for a while. She had called him three times but he did not pick up, so she assumed that he was probably extremely ill and left him a short message instead.

After a tedious journey of stuffing in her clothes, necessities, and the little money she had left into the battered suitcase that would be no doubt instantly recognizable at the airport, she picked up her phone as it vibrated against the pillows of her bed.

"Yes, Kanda?"

"I'll be there in fifteen minutes."

"Alright." Allen sighed. Everything had just happened so fast she wasn't sure how to react. She had only been informed yesterday that Lenalee would also be tagging along, which Kanda said to keep a secret. Apparently neither Tiedoll nor her brother Komui was aware of her whimsical decision, and in order to prevent any emotional outbursts it was to be kept hidden. The only people who knew of Lenalee's whereabouts were her manager, hair stylist, Kanda, and Allen herself. The manager had only agreed because Lenalee had threatened to cut off all her hair and dye it bright green.

Exactly fifteen minutes later, Kanda arrived in his dark BMW. There was a rather curious look on his face when he rolled down the windows. "I still don't understand how your house can be so normal." he inspected, eyes scrutinizing the small, shapely home.

"And would it make you feel better if it I lived in a broken down shack?" Allen rolled her eyes as she carried her suitcase out onto the porch. It had turned out surprisingly heavy, even though she couldn't recall stuffing many things in there.

"Che, it would make more sense for sure." Kanda smirked. "If everything else about you is so fucking weird then your house should be the same."

Allen twisted the key into the lock with more force than usual. "Kanda, I'm not here to listen to your insults." she said through gritted teeth. Seriously, they had seen each other for ten seconds and she already wanted to throw a rock at his car. "I don't think you understand what we're dealing with."

"I understand more than you do." Kanda replied. "I just haven't figured out why the woman dropped the USB and who she is."

Allen grunted skeptically. "Don't sound so confident, Kanda." she warned. "You may think that you're on top of the world in that private school you go to, but I have encountered much more dangerous things that you cannot imagine."

"Che, like Cross?"

"Whatever, let's just go."

When they arrived at the airport after some more intense bickering in the car, Lenalee was already waiting for them in front of the gate entrance, waving enthusiastically. Allen scratched her head awkwardly when she noticed the amount of attention the popstar was attracting, even with her terribly attempted disguise.

"That girl looks familiar." some kid whispered to her parents as they pushed their carts full of luggage past Allen. People were in fact staring, uncertain whether their eyes were playing a trick on them.

"Hey guys!" Lenalee said as she bounced over to the BMW, dragging behind a flashy Louis Vuitton suitcase.

Kanda nearly dropped the luggage he was trying to pull out of the trunk. "What the hell are you wearing?" He demanded, and then looked around suspiciously to make sure that nobody had seen him with such a psycho.

"Are you embarrassed to be traveling with me, Kanda?" Lenalee pouted in a pretense of feeling sad. "What do you think, Allen? Am I recognizable?"

Allen glanced around the vast space of the airport. "Well, considering the number of people staring at you, probably." she admitted. Although it was hard to tell that the girl behind the long green wig and dramatically black trench coat was the one and only Lenalee Lee, even a disguise could not cover up her natural charisma and star personality. Lenalee just naturally stood out from the crowd, like she did on stage.

"You look like a fucking witch." Kanda growled in annoyance as he slammed the trunk shut.

Lenalee's violet eyes peered out from under her black circular sunglasses. "Eh? The look I was going for was dark and mysterious!" she clapped her hands together. "A witch isn't that bad then. Now I just need a broom to complete the look, and I'll beat Rhode Camelot in the next issue of People Style for sure!"

Kanda rolled his eyes. "Shut up before I call Komui and tell him where you are."

"No Kanda, you can't do this to me!" Lenalee panicked. "This is my only break of the year, I can't go back to the studio and record more music! I need this vacation!"

"Then stop attracting attention. Look, that boy is coming over here to ask for your autograph."

The three of them quickly got out of the crowded area before some maniacal fan could discover Lenalee's identity. Allen smiled to herself as she watched Lenalee walk in a swift motion with her head down, eyes on the floor. Traveling with a celebrity was rather intense, but being a popstar with a reputation to uphold every day must put a lot of pressure on the girl. Then again, Kanda wasn't very inconspicuous either. Allen blinked up at the dark haired teen, who held an air of subtle confidence as he walked through several pairs of staring eyes. She had to admit that he was pretty attractive for someone whose hair was so unconventional-no, it was the way his dark hair framed his sharp face that made him handsome in an almost intimidating manner. Allen sighed as she listened to the dragging wheels of her suitcase behind her. Of course both of them had the looks and the money.

Rich kids.

"The lineup is so long!" Lenalee suddenly complained. "We should have just taken the private jet!"

"Che, spoiled brat." Kanda muttered. "I told Tiedoll to get us first class already."

Allen looked down at their sleek, preppy suitcases, and then at her own battered box that looked like a portable crate.

Rich kids.

Forty-five minutes later of standing in a line, they finally boarded the plane, much to Lenalee's dissatisfaction about the "quality of the service" and the "lengthy lineups."

Allen laughed at the popstar's behavior and asked Lenalee whether she had been on a normal plane before, to which she blinked and asked curiously if the lineups were usually this long. Soon, after some repetitive instructions and a flashy smile from a flight attendant who was wearing way too much makeup, they sat down in their respective seats, with Allen and Kanda together and Lenalee on the other side because apparently the guy next to the window seat was "hot like butter" and she needed to have an airplane fling with a stranger.

Allen sighed as she rested her head against the seat. This was her first time flying first class, and she knew she ought to be excited. For some reason however, going through the airport with Kanda and Lenalee had tired her tremendously. Lenalee hadn't stopped complaining for one second, and Kanda would make it worse every time by continuously telling her to shut up. It was clear that neither of them was very good at being in public.

She was about to close her eyes and rest for a bit when a young flight attendant pushing a trolley stopped at their seats with a large smile. "Hello, what can I get you?" her eyes scrutinized Kanda in an intrigued manner, trying to be subtle but failing miserably.

"Water." Kanda replied.

"Erm, I'll have orange juice please!" Allen smiled politely.

"Here you go." the flight attendant smiled as she gave Allen some MinuteMaid. She then poured some water into a plastic cup, eyes remaining on Kanda flirtatiously. Lenalee also seemed to notice the mesmerized lady, for she suddenly shouted "There's a spider on the juice box!"

"Ah!" the surprised flight attendant stuttered as her hands shook, spilling the water over Allen's head.

"Che, can't you even do your job properly?" Kanda demanded crossly, much to the flight attendant's embarrassment.

"I'm so sorry!" she blushed as she handed Allen some towels, poured another cup of water, and gave it to Kanda cautiously, careful to avoid any contact with the pissed off samurai. "I'm so sorry about this." she muttered again to Allen and then quickly pushed the trolley to serve the next passenger.

"Your hair seems to attract drinks." Kanda smirked at Allen, who dabbed at her head with the blue towel and a sigh.

"If you hadn't glared at her this wouldn't have happened."

"How was I glaring at her?"

"You always have a mean look on your face!"

"Actually, Kanda was not glaring at her." Lenalee smiled cheerfully. "She simply had the hots for him, that's all!"

Kanda nearly spit out his drink as Allen shook her head. "Some things are just not in my paradigm of understanding." she realized sadly, taking a sip of her orange juice. "Hey Kanda, were you born like this or do you only act like an arse because of your upbringing?"

"Excuse. Me?"

"He was always like this!" Lenalee piped up. "Believe it or not, in elementary school a lot of girls had a huge crush on him. The only few brave ones who had the guts to approach him were turned down."

"I did not turn anyone down."

Lenalee rolled her eyes. "Well, it's not like you actually said go away I don't like you or something like that, but your facial expression said it all." she sniffled dramatically. "I would feel so unfortunate if I had a crush on someone as terrible as Kanda!"

"Che, Komui would never allow that to happen."

Allen sighed as she wrapped the towel around her head and rested her head against the seat. The past couple of weeks had been absolutely crazy, and even now as she was listening to their chatter it still felt like a dream. Yes, dream. She closed her eyes to the rumbling of the plane engine.

She needed to do some serious dreaming before waking up to this nightmare.

* * *

When I look back at my old writing its amazing to see the huge difference between then and now. Anyone who has read Kanda steals Lenalee's Kidney would definitely see it. Hahahaha those were the funny times.

**Anyway, thank you for reading! Please kindly drop off a review (IT WOULD BE SO APPRECIATED) and keep your eyes open for the next one. ITS GONNA GET EXCITING.**

**SALADS**


End file.
